Why You Should Not Listen to Inspirational Leaders

Most people love shortcuts, and when it comes to achieving personal and professional success, we all crave to find the “one ring to rule them all”. Hence the popularity of lists of advice on how successful people achieved their success. I think you shouldn’t listen to that advice too seriously, and here’s why:

It worked for them. And the key here is the word “them”. Each of us makes different choices using our own internal logic, intuition, fears and courage. When the successful people talk about the road they do not tell you about each and every step of the way, only the milestones. And the road to the top is paved with countless small decisions, each of them may lead to the bottom too. But even if you do everything exactly the same at each milestone, the decisions you make and the luck you have along every one of the smaller steps will be different for everyone. Mathematically, it is impossible to simulate somebody else’s path.

Halo effect. This one is obvious. We tend to attribute positive features to people that we see in a positive light. And what is more positively regarded in modern world than success? We automatically assume additional positive qualities on top of the proven and obvious ones when we are looking at someone successful. And when you look back at yourself, it is not very encouraging exercise. Because you can know if you have what it takes, only after you’ve succeeded.

Common denominators are often meaningless. All vehicles have wheels, but you will not become a vehicle if you put wheels on yourself. The same is with success: you can be wise, disciplined, hard working and do everything right and never reach the heights that have been promised to you in the inspirational speeches or lists of advice. I am not saying that these qualities are not required, but often they are promoted as a guarantee. And there are never any guarantees for anything in life. It’s the very nature of life.

Extreme Individualism. Nobody succeeds alone. Nobody. Yet, most of the advice you receive is to believe in yourself, work hard, do it your own way etc. Human nature does not help in that either. When we are successful, even if it is by sheer luck, we immediately tend to think it is because of our own competence, wisdom etc. This is called attribution bias and successful people are not immune to it. The community/team/family that helped them on the way are not seen as the crucial/essential part of the success and are frequently overlooked.

Handpicked examples. For every success story there are hundreds of failed attempt stories. However, when you get a set of tips that should lead you to success because they have led a group of quite random people to success, all of the other side of the spectrum is ignored. The common denominators for all of the people are picked out and promoted to the be the distinguishing factors. But that may not be the whole truth.

And last but not list: Inspiration is like cake — it’s great for a short bit, but the high you get from being inspired briefly is not enough to create enduring results. You cannot change who you are and your own ways just by quickly trying out what worked for other people. You need to figure out what works for you. I hope this inspires you.

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