First place. The Best. Number One.
Growing up in America taught me that being on the top is important. We celebrate our heroes in sports. We flex our might in global politics. We chase our personal dreams and will spend years driving an Uber until it happens. Being a winner has influenced our news, shaped our politics, and dominated our societal constructs. As someone who has valedictorians in my family, the pressure to be the best was always close by.
In a modern world of lists, analytics, and metrics, it can be hard to distance yourself from rank. Scoreboards are everywhere and so are the critics. From grades to sales numbers, rank is how we determine who is making the cut and who isn’t. It directly impacts our confidence from the moment we are thrust into school until we get old enough to stop giving a fuck or die. We are driven by our parents and bosses, our teachers and coaches, to push to the top of the list at all costs, sometimes sacrificing health, relationships, and our own morality.
There is nothing wrong with trying to be the best. Competition drives improvements and excellence. But being the best has its own caveats. For example, Tiger Woods was the son of Earl Woods, an army veteran with a passion for sports and an instructor at the City College of New York. He was a self-proclaimed golf addict and began teaching Tiger as early as possible. By the time Tiger was two years old, they were already practicing regularly at a professional golf course. Weekdays and weekends, Tiger practiced for hours on end. No friend's birthday parties, no summer camps, no family vacations.
After knowing this, how many of you would trade childhoods with Tiger Woods?
There is a price for number one and for some it’s worth it, for others it isn’t. The thing that determines one’s fulfillment is how accurately it hits its goal. The more specific the goal is, the more fulfilled the accomplishment is once it is met. When you’ve defined specifically what success means for you, as long as you are living a life in accordance with your values, any other external facts simply don’t matter. Fuck what anyone else thinks. For Tiger, he has already written for his biography that “in retrospect, golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father.”
Fulfillment achieved.
So before you get jealous of someone else who has “made it,” ask yourself what it is they have “made it” to. A life of constant responsibility to someone else? Keeping shareholders constantly happy? If those aren’t your goals, what does it matter?
What is good for them may not be good for you.
So keep aiming high, but make the target your own. At the end of the day, the only legit thing you can compare yourself to is yourself yesterday. Whether you are rich or poor doesn’t make any difference. Whether you are healthy or sick doesn’t make any difference. Whether you are old or young doesn’t make any difference.
You get to make your own choices, including how you feel about those choices.
In your world, as long as you've done your best, you are already number one.
Fuck yeah, it’s Friday!
