Many years back, a friend challenged me saying (paraphrasing), “yea you are good. But does what you do scale?”

I remember saying something along the lines of, “probably not. But not everything needs to scale, I just need to influence just a few.”

A few times in the past week I said to a few folks, “no one follows pioneer. They follow the person who followed the pioneer.” And to a large extent, this is true. Fighting the usual narrative that you must be the first, or you must be followed is difficult. But, you’ve got to pay attention to your role.

Not all of us will be the celebrity in others’ stories. Some of us will be a hero. Some a villain. Some of us need to point to the celebrity, hero, or villain so that movements can happen, be sustained, or stopped.

It is ok to run your own race. Even better, if you are clear enough with that race to be at peace with those you influence, and those you don’t.