Your heroes can kill you.
Living based on how youâre perceived can lead to suboptimal decisions if youâre doing what makes others happy. But acting based on how youâre seen can also skew perception your own strengths, and lead you to severely underestimate, and the opportunities on the horizon.
I once had a mentor figure a hero me, until that perception me holding me 20-year-old college, still obstinately clinging to the dream of joining a top-tier global law firm.
We were at the park getting coffee. Me, the headstrong optimist. He, the wise sage.
I told him I was planning to apply to one of my dream firms. There was a chance I could become one of the first people at any City firm to be allowed to join without a degree.
He laughed kindly. âHow many new associates do they take on each year?â
âTen,â I said.
âI love you, brother. why donât ordered coffee from. There was a âhiringâ sign in the window.
This is someone I looked up to. Someone I had watched overcome the impossible.
He was an army veteran whoâd been paralysed from the waist down by a car bomb. They told him heâd never walk again, but that didnât stop him from finding a beautiful wife, having a wonderful child, and eventually learning to walk for short periods using crutches.
But he looked at my impossible dream and thought I was the crazy one.
In fairness, he wasnât alone. My parents said the same thing. Everyone did. Iâd said I wanted be a corporate lawyer since I was 14 but I never actually met one until I got to university.
A few months after that conversation, I was having welcome drinks with the managing partner of one of the worldâs biggest law firms. My dream was fully realised. He told us the odds of getting accepted that year were 1500:1.
People wonât always see the fire in you, or know when itâs burning hot enough to burn down the walls between you and your crazy, ambitious goals.
Iâll still give the general advice that you should be wise to your limits and never bet so much on a single opportunity that failure could wipe you out completely.
But sometimes you just have to tune out the world and chase your goals with reckless abandon.
