Nobody Does It Better

(Image from picng.com)

Nobody does it better. We are, or I am, the best at XYZ.

These messages are everywhere. They can’t all be true. There can only be one Best at each XYZ. But there is never a shortage of businesses, governments or people claiming to be Best.

Government trumpets the UK as world-leading in all manner of ways. Pandemic response. Taking in refugees. Switching to environmentally friendly energy sources. Worker productivity. In all of those areas, data indicates the UK is leading from the rear. Cold, hard, irrefutable data. It’s embarrassing.

Although I’m picking on the UK because I live here, there’s no reason to feel smug if you live elsewhere. This impulse to proclaim Best status at whatever we do, regardless of whether or not it’s true? It’s commonplace.

When we simply delude ourselves, any harm done might be limited to ourselves while those who are better at XYZ race ahead of us and we blithely stumble along without even realizing we could learn from them.

But this tendency to proclaim I’m The Best is so widespread, being honest can be a hindrance. When I think about it, I’m sure it has cost me a lot of work (and therefore a lot of money) over the years.

Growing up, I wanted fervently to be Best at something. No matter how hard I tried, I never was. I was in the top of my class in high school, but not at the very top, not even second from the top. Early in adulthood, I got into the Space Program. All the engineers already working in the lab knew more and were more capable. (Yes, they had experience and I didn’t yet… but Best means Best.) I’ve worked in two of the world’s best IT groups since then. Although I was very good at what I did in each of them, I still couldn’t say I was Best.

I’m seldom the Best in a room. Even on my most arrogant days, I know it. I learn from people who are better than I am at something. In the moment it may not seem like it, but if I don’t absorb lessons right away, they surface later (sometimes to my chagrin).

When I try to land a project to work on, I say I’m very good at what the project needs. I hardly ever say I’m the Best. I can only say it where I feel certain it’s true. There’s probably someone else in the world, somewhere, who is better.

We’re expected to exaggerate our suitability. We’re supposed to claim we are Best even though all but one of us in the world can’t be. At least, this is how the game goes in the types of work I do. Although I’ve done some wondrous things for clients, I’ve missed out on potential clients who wanted be able to say they got the Best. If I would just play the game a bit more, exaggerate and claim I am Best…

What would be wrong about doing that when it’s what many others do?

What’s Wrong with Falsely Claiming to be Best?

If you are told something relentlessly, eventually you believe it. Any introductory psychology course teaches about studies that proved this. It’s why some politicians and political parties constantly spew a falsehood that can energize the particular voters they want to attract. It’s why some marketing campaigns paint a distorted picture of what they want to sell. It’s the key to why gaslighting works. Even the most resistant personality will fall to it eventually if bombarded intensely enough and long enough.

It works even if the false story being told to you is being told by yourself.

If you dupe yourself into believing you are Best, that’s when you stop making progress. Why should you strive to improve when you are already Best? What could you learn from anyone else when you are already Best? How could any competitor surpass you when you are Best?

You may lose out on some opportunities, as I have, by being forthright about what you can do and where your limitations are. But the moment you start to believe you are Best is the beginning of your downfall. The world does not stand still. Even if you really are the one true Best at what you do, you can only hold that position by not letting yourself believe it enough to stop getting better. Everyone around you is getting better. You may stand still, but they won’t. As a person, as a business, as a nation.

Tell everyone else that you’re Best, and you’ll start to believe it. So don’t, even if it’s true.

You’re very good at what you do. Very good, and available to apply your capabilities where needed. Like me.

For all but a highly select few, that’s the most anyone can really offer.