That it doesn’t matter what other people are doing. All that matters is who you’re becoming, and how far you’ve traveled. I understand a lot of us have a herd mentality. I understand that in this world of ours, especially with social media, we are suffering from an addiction to comparison. It makes me think of what Theodore Roosevelt once said. He said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I’ll repeat that again, because it’s such a valuable idea, to me at least. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Real leadership is not about followership. It’s about leadership. In other words, you can follow the crowd, do what everyone’s doing, think the majority thinking, operate the way everyone is operating, or you can run your own race, trust your instinct, be authentic, speak with your own voice, pursue your own ambitions, and be your own woman or man. But you can’t do both.
Yes, when you don’t follow the crowd, and when it doesn’t matter to you what others are
thinking and doing you’re going to be a freak. I’d simply offer you an insight. Hopefully, it’ll put a smile on your face, which is everyone seems normal until you get to know them, so yes, the outside might call you a freak, or weird, or eccentric, but what’s more powerful than being true to yourself. Shakespeare said it really well. He said, “To thine own self be true,” and as I suggested, I wish I’d known when I was 20 years old. Forget about what other people are doing and how they’re thinking. Forget about how they’re living.
The majority of people are full of exhaustion, and the majority of people are addicted to
distraction, and many people are depleted and disappointed, and many people have resigned
themselves to average. So, why would you follow what most people are doing?
As a matter of fact, I think a great formula for World-Class is look at what most people are doing, and go in the opposite direction. All that really matters is who are you becoming, and how far you’ve traveled. As human beings, it’s really easy to beat ourselves up, because we’re not at our mountain top. Well, that’s the journey and process of World-Class. It’s a lifetime pursuit, and you want to make the time to celebrate how far you’ve come in terms of your personal growth, in terms of your craft, in terms of your impact on other people and in person, and in terms of the lifestyle that you’ve created.