Pedestal

3 Dec, 2024

I love meeting people who are 8-10X better than me. However, I often find it challenging to strike up an engaging conversation with them.

This is because when I meet such people, the thought "They're better than me and I'm nowhere near them" creeps into my mind, and before I know it, I’ve put them on a pedestal.

For a long time, I struggled with the question: How not to put people I admire on a pedestal. But I finally found the answer to it. All thanks to Haikyu—an anime about Volleyball.

So far, I've watched ~30 episodes of Haikyu and I didn't come across a single player who said "You're better than me and I'm nowhere near you".

Every player, even when they knew they were going to lose badly, said "I'll kick your ass!" to their opponents.

Listening to this dialogue over and over from different players in Haikyu, I realized that no matter how strong your opponent is, you still need to believe that you can kick their ass!

Yes, it's a delusion (for now). But you still need to believe in it!

Why? Because that's the only way you can get rid of the inferior-superior feeling and not put them on a pedestal.

This boosts your confidence, reduces friction, and allows you to get along with the people you admire more easily.

So, the next time I meet someone who is 8-10X better than me, I wouldn't encourage thoughts like I'm nowhere near them and blah blah but instead I'll believe that I can kick their ass (someday), and talk to them with confidence!