July 25, 2011

Just because there’s someone better than you doesn’t mean you can’t be great.

I can remember the specific moment I gave up wanting to be a graphic designer. It was late 2006 and I was standing in the Alan Fletcher exhibition at the Design Museum in London. I remember thinking to myself “I’ll never be as good as Alan Fletcher so I might as well give up now.” And so I did. 

In a moment of frustration and jealousy I threw away the thing I was best at and most passionate about. It was more than 4 years before I designed anything again. It was a waste of education and talent.

It was years later that I had an epiphany that would have saved me a lot of heartache: Just because there’s someone better than you doesn’t mean you can’t be great.

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but have you ever refused to attempt something great because you knew you wouldn’t be the best? We often choose to compete in the smallest arenas where we know we can win. We play it safe on a field of average competitors where we think we won’t be too far behind the rest of the pack. We keep company with timid, talentless people because we are afraid that mixing with giants will make us feel small and inadequate. But that’s an insecurity you will have to face if you really want to experience increased success.

Now I let my encounters with more accomplished people increase my desire to excel, not destroy it. I actively seek out people who are the best at what they do and learn everything I can from them. If you are looking for ways to improve your game, then examine the lives and behavior of the most exceptional people you can find and then start applying what you see. Absorb their wisdom and watch how they create and then, like the brace on a catapult, use their achievements to propel yourself further than you could ever have gone without them.

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Alan Fletcher

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