Competition, Talent, & Effort

I had a revelation competing against my best friend at squash.

For starter, he's way better than me. To the point I never won a single game against him. I'm the most athletic of the 2 but he has something I have not: talent. And it extends to everything in life. He understands and apply things without effort. I don't. When we play squash, he's toying with me. Making me go left and right. Taking control of the center of the court. And in the end, he wins every single time.

But there was this specific game I remember quite vividly:

He is winning 10 - 0. A game of squash is 11 points to win, so he is about to sweep me away. The next engagement comes and right from the start he makes me run to every single corner of the court. I even bump my head and body to the walls. I'm gradually fading, barely catching the ball, he's about to finish me. But he decides to do it in style with a lob just over my head. I know I'm going to lose but I can remember just mentally refusing the humiliation of that finishing move. So I run like a mad man, jump, smash the ball in between my legs, and crash into the glass wall. I'm hurt but I won the point. After shooting that lob, he was so sure I was not going to catch it that he just stopped playing and got caught off guard.

Of course I lost 11 - 1 just after that, but that's not the point. The point is my best effort had beaten his laziest.

Conclusion: we are all indie hackers in a competition of some kind. And talented people are almost always going to win. But if you're not talented like me, know this: you can outwork them. Because of their talent, they really don't know what effort is. At some point they get complacent, and that's when you strike them down. And unlike squash, you only need one shot at the right moment to win at life.