Hypothetical Greatness

No one gives a shit about how great you could be. The only thing that matters is what you make real.

I have grand ambitions, and because I am lucky and have a very high bar, am surrounded by people who also do…

These people have the potential to be world class at one, maybe even several things. Which is already insane.

Yes, the existence of potential greatness in someone is a truly awesome thing, in the real, non-trivialized, definition of the word “awesome.”

But there is a massive drop-off. It happens between how often this potential exists in people, and how often it is expressed in the real world.

This is a very sad thing.

It is essentially a massive deadweight loss of greatness in the world. We all lose out because more people haven’t expressed what is great inside them, and these people lose out on the incredible life experiences that could have ensued from them actually producing tangible output.

I know several potentially great people who should censor themselves much less. Of course every day I also witness many people who perhaps should censor themselves a little more ;)

It is very common for people with awesome potential to either have more impostor syndrome than your average person (the better you are, the more you realize how many great people there are in the world, which can be intimidating), and… and probably more significantly… to have a very big ego that stops them from wanting to confront reality.

If you know that you have greatness in you, any real world data that suggests that you might not be as amazing as you think can tarnish your self-image — a rejection from someone you like, or maybe not succeeding at a challenge or in an entrepreneurial project.

As often, the only solution is to directly confront reality. To put in the reps and actually become good at confirming your skills in the real world in the same way that you make your muscles stronger at the gym.

Remember: when you die one day, all of your unexpressed potential will die with you.

I often am haunted by these words from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

Do not let your internal genius disappear with you.

Express yourself. Get it out there into the real world.

The output might be less impressive than what you had fantasized, but at least it will exist in the world of bits and atoms.

And who knows, what you produce might even one day surprise you, take a life of its own, and surpass anything you had imagined.