Don’t Be A Game-Changer

I don’t think the right goal for most people is to be a game-changer.

Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Mickey Mantle.

J.S. Bach, Stevie Wonder, Jacob Collier, Esperanza Spalding.

Picasso, Monet, Michelangelo.

Julia Child, Alton Brown, Samin Nosrat.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai.

The thing about being a game changer is that you’re a remarkable distillation of talent.

But the other thing about being a game-changer is that it’s incredibly rare. Of the hundreds of professional athletes in a given sport, only a few are real game-changers. Sometimes there aren’t any current game-changers!

Now think about all of the remarkable athletes, musicians, change-markers who aren’t game-changers. They make amazing art, performing amazing feats, and influence the world. Taken collectively, their contributions will dwarf that of those we consider game-changers, even if they individually don’t measure up as a game-changer.

Don’t be a game changer. Just keep playing your game, the best way you can.