The Dangers of Idols

No, this won’t be a spirituality lecture - mentions of ‘zen’ or ‘peace’ will be restricted to this sentence. Instead, a reminder you should unequivocally reject having idols.

A brief comment - what I’m about to discuss is a very specific state of mind induced by the very idols you revere. It’s not the only state of mind one can have, but it’s certainly the most cancerous. It is this state I’ll be addressing. If this fails to resonate, fantastic - you’re likely not experiencing this particular handicap.

Here’s the main idea - the biggest problem with idolizing is that it heavily distorts your understanding of cause and effect.

By and large, idols tend to emerge where desire exists - they surface around areas of personal interest (I loved Ronaldo as a child - I couldn’t name a squash player if my life depended on it). Almost invariably, idols represent a gap between what you are today and what you hope to become - and this is precisely the problem.

As a competitor, your goal should be to beat your idols. When you idolize someone to the point of mythology (read: placing a competitor on a pedestal), you mute your competitive instinct with the most dangerous assumption of all: they’re intrinsically better.

Psychologically, idolizing is much like littering your vision with cataracts. As a competitor you should desire nothing more than reverse engineering your idol’s inputs, with the ultimate goal of replicating and one upping them. Worlds apart from emulation however, the seeds of idolatry typically sprout from inferiority.

By placing your competitor on a psychological pedestal, you’ve elected to bury their success inputs in either extreme talent (equivalent to not looking at all) or inaccuracies (you swallow whatever story they tell you - hook, line, and sinker). The inputs that should be uncovered under careful observation (and copied) are instead shrouded in mystery (and cannot be copied).

Operationally, the intellectual con is no more sophisticated than the honeymoon period (and in both cases, self-inflicted). In relationships however, proximity ensures rose-coloured glasses lose their tint quickly - heavily edited views simply will not survive the onslaught of reality. The lack of contact with idols, however, permits more flexibility with their expiry date.

Let’s bring that date forward with two simple ideas:

a) Follow what they did at the equivalent stage in their journey - it's difficult to idolize someone only a fraction ahead.
b) Don’t rely on them to tell you the truth about that stage in their journey.

The underlying antidote is follow what they do, not what they say.

Where to look? In business, you’ll often find the answer in two places - biography/investigative journalism (usually critical), or court documentation (certainly critical). Two places where what your competitors do (or more precisely, what they haven’t yet disguised) is on full display.

Read enough here and you have the equivalent of frequent contact in the honeymoon period. And much like the honeymoon period, your heavily edited views will not survive the onslaught of reality.