These dozen words can help anyone achieve greatness in whatever they’re pursuing, according to gymnastics GOAT Simone Biles.
It’s graduation season, which means celebs and star achievers from every field imaginable have fanned out to dispense their wisdom to this year’s graduating class. That includes gymnastics GOAT Simone Biles. As you can imagine, she wasn’t handing out advice on better backflips when she spoke at Washington University recently.
Instead, she offered advice on a topic that is of much more use to the vast majority of grads not destined for Olympic glory — chasing big goals of any sort. Biles shared simple but profound advice she learned from her mother that she believes can help anyone achieve greatness in whatever endeavors they pursue.
It turns out that a chorus of diverse experts agrees with her advice.
12 great words of advice from Simone Biles’s mom
Few would argue that Biles is the reigning “greatest of all time” in gymnastics, including apparently Biles herself.
“It does give me chills thinking about what I have accomplished in gymnastics,” she confessed to the newly minted graduates. “But I’m going to let you in on a little secret — being the GOAT was never the goal.”
Biles credits her mom with setting her focus as an athlete. It wasn’t, as you might think, beating others or winning competitions. It was “to be the best Simone that I can be.”
“To be an elite student or an elite athlete or an elite anything, you have to be … the kind of person who is fueled by their own passion,” Biles said, adding an epic 12 words that every superachiever should remember: “My goal was to be the greatest Simone Biles of all time.”
The best way to help kids achieve their potential
There is no fancy language in those dozen words. No tricks, hack, or memorable acronyms. What makes them so valuable for anyone looking to achieve greatness? In short, their focus is not on extrinsic markers of success, like rankings or relative status, but on an intrinsic drive to self-betterment.
A whole host of experts insists this is the right orientation not only for a happier life, but for a higher-achieving one, too.
That starts from childhood, as Biles’s mom clearly understood. Child development experts claim that the best way to motivate kids to perform at their best isn’t by comparing them with others or hectoring them to improve their weaknesses. It’s to identify and celebrate their individual strengths, and build out from there.
In other words, it’s helping them be the greatest version of themselves they can be given their particular talents.
“Confidence is contagious: When we’re good at things, our courage rises. When young people experience themselves as strong and capable—as an artist, an athlete, a leader, or a friend—they are better equipped to persevere through obstacles in other areas of their life,” explained educator Russell Shaw in The Atlantic recently.
The best way for adults to chase greatness too
But aiming to be the greatest version of yourself isn’t just the best way to help kids achieve happiness and greatness. It’s also the best approach for adults, too.
″Comparison is the deadliest thing we can do to ourselves because we will always come up short. All it does is exaggerate all of our insecurities,” best-selling author and leadership guru Simon Sinek has said. “It’s healthy to grow our own strengths rather than be intimidated by the strengths of others.”
When you try to beat others, you will perpetually come up short. Biles is a world champion who has literally beaten every other human being on earth in her sport. Apparently even she agrees with Sinek that true self-worth doesn’t come from out-achieving others. It comes from a sense of maximizing your own potential.
You can’t erase doubts about your self-worth through achievement, no matter how exceptional. But you can achieve more through a firm sense of self-worth and focus on self-betterment.
Writer Mark McManus once put it this way: “The only people who desire to be better than everyone else are those who feel inferior. The need to ‘outshine’ everyone is actually born of fear and weakness, not strength.” True greatness — and true self-confidence — comes from measuring yourself against nothing but your own potential.
Mark Zuckerberg agrees with Simone Biles
Another unexpected supporter of the Biles’s family’s approach to greatness? Mark Zuckerberg.
Last summer, like many parents, he took his young daughter to see Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour. Apparently impressed by the show, she told her dad, “I want to be like Taylor Swift when I grow up,” the Meta founder related on a podcast.
But Zuckerberg wasn’t having any of that.
“I was like, ‘But you can’t. That’s not available to you.’ And she thought about it and she’s like, ‘Alright, when I grow up I want people to want to be like August Chan Zuckerberg,’” Zuckerberg continued. “And I was like, ‘Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah.’”
You can imagine that Biles’s mom would have approved of Zuckerberg encouraging his daughter to aim to be no one but the best version of herself.
Be fueled by passion, not comparison
Which is a nice encapsulation of Biles’s powerful insight on the likeliest route to achieving big things in life. It’s not by comparing yourself with others. It’s not by trying to beat them or be like them. True greatness most often stems from simply trying to be the best version of yourself.
That is the kind of person who is “who is fueled by their own passion.” And it is also the kind of person who is most likely to achieve great things.
