Never meet your heroes. (or how not to summit the entirely wrong mountain)

Never meet your heroes.

(Is integrity dead or am I just a fool)

Performance in some arenas is easier to measure than others.?

Racing an ultra-marathon, climbing a mountain into rarified air, clear and unambiguous metrics of success or failure. I’ve accumulated plenty of both.

But some arenas appear clear whilst being quite murky indeed.?

I ‘compete’ in the art of the keynote, the guest speaker, the stirrer of souls, motivator of the masses, imparter of hard earned wisdom and dropper of quotes.

And I have always tried to find the ‘best in the biz’ to assess the general direction and altitude of the summit.?

As I narrowed the list, many of them had a number of accolades in common;

• Writers for the right publications
• Graduates of the best schools
• Best selling authors.

So you assume that that’s where the bar is.?

These are the lofty pinnacles you must ascend if you want to play in the arena. So I set to work - but as I dug and developed and marched across the territory I thought they had marked out before me I continued to make discoveries that both filled me with dismay whilst setting me free.

Writers for the right publications

I wouldn’t want to be the editor's inbox at these publications, the sheer volume of zero-calorie word salad content that would get unceremoniously flung their way must be staggering. So I spent the time crafting well thought out pieces, researched and well sourced, relevant and interesting. I reviewed the tone and pitch of the articles they did publish to make sure I was in the same lexicon and meter - all before even looking up an editor's contacts.?

But as I worked through this process with the publications that so often adorned the headlines of ‘the best’ I discovered that in many cases the content was irrelevant. What really mattered was were you willing to pay to be printed.?

Turns out a swipe of my credit card would’ve been enough to add ‘as seen in’ on my bio. Quality of content was a distant second.?

On principle I couldn’t do it, my work is good enough and valuable enough to your readers to print or it isn’t. So I write the best content I can for the people that swim in my circles and either I cut the mustard or I don’t.?

Write or die.?

Graduates of the best schools.?

I should have seen this one coming. Surely not everyone went to Stanford or Harvard.?

Turns out they hadn’t.

As I dug into what they were studying, it became evident that doing an online course and being granted a certificate of completion was enough for many people to add ‘Graduate of Harvard’ or Stanford or choose 'your hallowed institution’ to their bio.?

Stopped working my way down that rabbit hole.?

Instead I committed to a road of study I was passionate about from a university that will potentially open very few doors. But knowledge is knowledge and quality research is just that. Sure I’m also working my way through an online course on Game Theory from Stanford - but you can bet those post nominals won’t appear on my business card any time soon. (He’s not the Messiah, he just did on online course…h/t Monty Python). The Post Grad Psyc degree (work in progress) hopefully will make it to the post nominals but it certainly won’t be for you, it’ll be for me.

Best selling authors.?

And in their defense they were.?

Providing the category was ‘Business books on super niche topic, written by left handed people and read on Tuesdays by candlelight’

#1 on the charts.

This morning I received an invite to book my spot at a four figure per seat workshop run by the author of an Amazon’s #1 Best Selling book on whatever it was they were pedaling.

Despite my better instincts I checked out said book on Amazon. It currently ranks almost 400,000 spots below my own. I’m in the top 30 for Extreme Sports (with a three year old stealth help book…idk), top 200 for a few decently broad categories and around top 100,000 for the entirety of Amazon. I wouldn’t call myself a best seller in a month of Sundays.

So what’s my point?

Is this just a rant because I’m rankled by the front of some people (probably)

Did I expect better of those who purport to be leaders, insight givers, examples of success? (definitely)

If you can’t beat them, join them? (is that the answer?)

Hell no.

Reading Shane Parrish’s book Clear Thinking last night and he laid out the case that Best Practice isn’t always the best. By definition it’s average. Best practice is simply the aggregate across what we believe is the most widely accepted and efficient norm of the day.?

Until someone comes along with a better idea, a new approach or simply points out the bleeding obvious and we scuttle the board and reset the benchmarks.?

It appears that best practice for some in this arena is a low bar and a sold soul.?

So what’s the plan?

Set your standards and adhere to them.?

What is best practice for you?

Not them, but you.

And if you want to have heros (and there are some magnificent ones in this space) then check for evidence of real and tangible credibility.

Look for the scars of experience. Look at what they have done, that actually mattered or made a difference, not what they tell you they've done. To mic drop an absolutely banger from Tywin Lannister - any man who must yell that he is the King, is no true King.

In truth this has been somewhat liberating - I have seen what the quote/unquote ‘best’ had done and it saved me from climbing to the summit on entirely the wrong mountain.?

Now I am free to cast my own image, chart my own course. Set my own expectations.?

It’ll probably cost me no small number of column inches and the odd 'accolade' - but the person staring at me in the mirror every morning is cast from stone and knows the truth of the work they have done and yet aspire to do.