arrogance, an ingredient for success? i used to be a movie binge watcher in high school. 150 episodes, 600 episodes? gbewa joor (a yoruba phrase for bring them). surprisingly, since i graduated high school, i seem to have lost that touch. i abandon movies halfway (abbot elementary, the 100, and black clover side-eying me right now). so, i rarely watch movies now. this week though, i met up with a friend who had read my previous post and as we discussed, she said, "there's the movie you should see, the social network. you give off the vibes from it." i don't know if i should be flattered that i give off the vibes of a movie that captures how mark zuckerberg founded facebook. you know what, i will be flattered and think of myself as the next zuck (inserts winking emoji). i watched the movie yesterday and i must say it was a great watch. really good actors and fantastic plot! i am not here to dive deep into the movie though (just watch it on netflix yourself). i want to talk about what i think was quite pronounced about zuck throughout the movie: arrogance. if there was one thing that was evident about him in the movie, it sure was arrogance. he could look people in the eye and genuinely tell them they stink. he told his girlfriend she didn't need to study at a time because she went to boston university (she broke up with him for that lol). he walked out of a class abruptly and the professor mocked him, saying the course was too hard for him. he turned back and gave the professor the answer to all his unsolved questions. that arrogance was in full effect in his dealings with the winklevoss brothers in court. bro actually told the judge that giving them his minimum attention was already a privilege they shouldn't push too far. now, sure, there were excesses, and i'm not justifying everything he did.

however, the movie got me thinking. one thing that has always been said about successful people is their arrogance. they genuinely don't care what others think or say about them. they speak without thinking about whether it's polite or not. if they have thought about something and have come to a logical conclusion that it's the right step, they will do it. if you like, roll on the ground, they don't care. they do what they want to do when they want to do it (legally and ethically correct things). i ask though, isn't that what is required to change the world? isn't that what we need to build structures that will shape the world for years? elon musk's spacex was spoken against multiple times by lots of stakeholders. they said it was impossible to send rockets to the moon and back. i can almost guarantee "arrogant" was among the words used to describe him. when elon was asked, to the point of tears, he said, "i wish they would come here and see the incredible work we are doing, maybe they would agree." in his "arrogant" manner, he continued and is now the world's richest man by a mile. spacex is literally the world's supplier of rockets. that is what has laid the foundation for a lot of space exploration and all. dig into every person that has left an imprint on the sands of time. one constant is that they were definitely termed arrogant. most of the artists we now appreciate today were criticized by people around them for sticking with what was termed terrible. they were arrogant and it paid off in the long term. y combinator has this quote i read once. i don't have it all off the top of my head and i can't find it to quote it, but paraphrasing, it says "if you are building something and that thing annoys a whole lot of people around you, then you are actually doing something impactful." so, arrogance, or at least a form of it, is actually required to be successful. you need to not give a damn about what a lot of people think about you and keep doing what you are doing. you need to learn to ignore people. so, mate, stop being too gentle. get a little bit of arrogance into your system. even jesus was termed arrogant for healing on the sabbath day! why not me? i am already very arrogant by the way. those who know me can testify :) unconventional thinker

17:45 est p.s.: i am not saying you should be disrespectful to people. there's a very thin line between the kind of arrogance i am emphasizing and disrespect, to be honest. but yeah, ignore people more and do you!