stop trying to be someone else
and discover your authentic edge today
escape competition through authenticity — Naval Ravikant
I’ll never forget the day I read this quote.
It’s the reason I started writing. I realised nobody had my mind. Nobody had experienced life in the same way I did. Nobody had my exact perspective. I started writing because no one else can think, rationalise, and write exactly as I do.
How special is that?
No two people are identical.
We’re all caught up trying to one-up other people, replicate their lives, or copy their business. But we forget we’re unique. We cannot be copied.
Big businesses copy to compete.
You’re not Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft.
These organisations thrive on competition, constantly battling for market share, customers, and profit. They invest heavily in innovation, marketing, and scaling to outperform each other. For them, competition is a matter of survival, driving them to stay ahead—or risk dying.
You are much smaller—and that’s your unfair advantage.
Being small means you can be uniquely yourself. You can play to your strengths. You don’t have to compete with anyone else.
Of course, I look to others for inspiration—there’s value in learning from those ahead of me—but I don’t copy anyone.
And neither should you.
Copying others will make you unhappy because it’s not who you are.
You’ll force everything.
Escape competition through authenticity. Create your own identity. If you do, the only person you will compete against is the person you were yesterday.
And that’s something much better to work with.
When you copy someone else, you are not being yourself.
If you are not being yourself, you’re not playing to your strengths.
If you’re not playing to your strengths, you will struggle.
And when you struggle, you will become unhappy.
trading innocence for external validation as we age
Before a baby can speak, they mirror the behaviours they observe.
If someone smiles at them, they smile back. When someone shouts, a baby picks up the tone and rhythm and understands that somebody is angry.
As you age, you lose your innocence.
You begin to understand the world around you and recognise complexities like competition, comparison, and societal expectations. Your behaviour shifts to adapt to these realisations, often leading you to adopt traits and habits that might not align with your authentic self.
Your behaviour changes—and you adjust your personality to fit in.
But this isn’t what you really want. You still do it—because you’re learning.
You don’t know any better yet.
It’s only when life doesn’t give us what we want that we try and reclaim our authenticity.
The realisation often comes late. We spend too much time chasing external validation—success, approval, and status—only to realise they don’t deliver the fulfilment we desire. We’re left disappointed. We begin questioning the path we’ve taken. We try to correct course.
But at this point, it may be too late.
Learning from others isn’t a bad thing—it’s good.
However, you should always use your mind and apply any external advice or events to your own life. In everything you do, live true to yourself. Just because something worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it should work for you. It might not. And that’s okay.
Always live true to yourself.
Your life will be far more rewarding when you’re the captain of your ship.
why no two minds are alike
Think of it like this.
Let’s imagine 50 people in a room.
They’re instructed to write 50 words about a picture of a sandy beach with blue skies and a single palm tree. Each person would describe the scene differently. And there’s a 99.99% chance that no two people will write the same 50 words. They may write similar things, but they won’t write identical words.
No two people are the same.
Everyone has a unique mind.
You may think you’re the same as someone else, but there are three differences:
Where they are going is different from you.
Where they came from is different from you.
The imprints in the ground are not the same as yours.
No two people have walked the same path.
Everyone is unique—and you cannot be duplicated.
If you’re not running a huge organisation, there’s no use in trying to compete with someone else. You will lose your ability to play to your strengths. You won’t find the unique key which unlocks your doors.
Be authentic.
And you won’t have to compete with anyone for the rest of your life.
be yourself, everyone else is taken
Many of us are trapped in the imitation game.
We copy others, although it leads to suffering, sadness, and stagnation. This mismatch can create frustration and a sense of emptiness, as you’re living someone else’s life rather than your own. Maybe you’re not happy with your life. And that’s good to admit. But your life will never improve if you look for external answers. Go within yourself.
What unique solution will solve your unique problem?
It’s tough to improve when you’re focused on copying someone else.
You are not them.
They are not you.
Just remind yourself that nobody else on this Earth has your mind. You are authentic. You are unique. You are one-of-a-kind. Don’t waste your life trying to copy someone else. Be yourself—before it’s too late.
What’s your take? Have you ever tried to copy someone else? Did it make you happy? Let me know in the comments!Talk soon,
Stefano
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You're wasting yourself in the process of copying others.
Create, don't copy, authenticity is the ultimate advantage. Trust our own path.