--- title: "In The Shadow of The Crown" description: "For anyone chasing the top spot who hasn't yet felt what it weighs." author: "Rahim Rasul" type: "Podcast episode" series: "Halftime Talks" episode: 139 published: "2017-08-14" duration: "14 min" theme: "Reps and effort" tags: "leadership, pressure, nobility, consistency, excellence" audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_139_TheCrown.mp3?dest-id=175061" url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/in-the-shadow-of-the-crown/" site: "I Love Process" --- # In The Shadow of The Crown _For anyone chasing the top spot who hasn't yet felt what it weighs._ **The question:** So many of us want to be number one, but are we willing to take on the load that comes with being number one? Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_139_TheCrown.mp3?dest-id=175061 ## Before you listen Wearing the crown in any career or domain is an ambition many of us hold from a young age. It's easy to picture yourself in the number one slot, and harder to live up to the weight of the position. I grew up on stories of kings and queens, from Arthur to Mansa Musa and the Pharaohs. Looking up noble, I found virtue, goodness, honor and integrity, and remembered high school chemistry: the noble metal does not corrupt and resists acid, and the noble gas barely reacts. That is the quality the crown asks of us. Meanwhile the best are held to a different standard. LeBron James is criticized like nobody else, and Steph Curry went from underdog to villain the moment he won. Listen for the run of questions near the end, about the holes in your game and habits built for performance day in, day out, and for the ask to grow strong in nobility: a steady heart and a steady mind. ## From the talk > The best will always be the most criticized and the most praised. > > You were so captivated in what it looked like you forgot to see what it was. > > It's easy to criticize from outside, but it's hard to uphold from the inside. ## Sit with this - Are you building the skills around the base of your greatness in a way that allows it to naturally shine? - Are you curing the holes in your game? - Are our routines and our habits prime for our perfect performance? ## Transcript If any of you have grew up like me, you are fascinated with the stories of kings and queens of princesses and Princess, the stories of Arthur and the round table and Gwyneth vere, the princess Sleeping Beauty, being kissed by the prince needing to be saved by bit of royalty and those stories of stories played havoc on my imagination in such a good way. I even love the stories in Africa of Mansa ConCom Musa, or you had the great Pharaohs who ruled the civilization of Egypt for two plus millennia. These stories captivated my imagination. And it's interesting because their seat of power was passed down through their genetic heritage, their genetic bloodline, saying that something within our family is destined to rule because only us can be stewards, the shepherds of the kingdom, the one who wields the crook and flail, the power and the separateness and that really captivated me. And then we saw a change, we saw how the seat of power became coveted. Before I go too deep, one of the things that I recognized when you talk about royalty, is you had no balls, and I'm a lover of words, I am on a scale of 10 I am a 10 in loving words. And when you look at a word and you get curious, you start seeing how that word might be related to other words, and you really realize that you've probably been using it and seeing it as a fraction of what it really is. And when doing research on. Heavy is the head bares the crown I saw the word nobility and nobility. People say you came from a noble bloodline. So I looked up the word noble and it said, virtue, goodness, honor and integrity. And I also remember being in high school and studying chemistry, and they were organized in such an amazing way you had the noble gases, and you have the noble metals. And I'm asking you, do you think there is a coincidence that the same word is used to describe royalty. And so when looking up that noble metal, the noble metal does not corrupt, it is not easily attacked by acid and the noble gas is really low in chemical reactivity. And so when we talk about this nobility, when we talk about what it means to bear the crown, what it means to sit in a position of power and lead, we are talking about something that is beyond corruption, and does not easily dissolve with contrast, or attack. And we talk about something that will not react and in in today's political landscape in today's global landscape, this quality of nobility is far from an aspired attribute of the leaders. Obviously, we must find it for ourselves before we can expect it in the world. But it is interesting that these words have been used for 1000s of years to describe the leaders that shaped the course of direction of the civilizations that they steward. And so it's easy to look at that seat of power and covet it. But that King, the bear of the crown was hold it up in a way and in a manner that keeps the power. Like when we see the greatest work. And now I'm switching from royalty, I could be talking about athletics, I could be talking about politics, I could be talking about business, we don't see what goes on in the background. But yet everybody looking at that person sitting on top is plotting and scheming. A way to take them down. And it's only a moment that it takes to take them down. It's only a slipping of, of someone's attention that gives the opportunity, the ability to happen, I can take them down. But to lead is a lonely task to lead to hold and bear that crown you don't realize how heavy it is. I remember when recently one political guy got an office, he was like, man, it didn't look this hard from the outside. You were so captivated in what it looked like you forgot to see what it was. Everybody wants to fake it until they make it and now that they're on center stage, guess what they look like they look like a fake heavy is the head that bears the crown. The best will always be the most criticized and the most praised. Heavy is the head that bears that crown. If you look at the modern NBA, it's we can't even argue that LeBron James is the best athlete of our time. You might argue about the greatest ever but nobody is more criticized than him. He's held at a different standard a standard way above what anybody elses. To be great. You have to stand in the line of fire. Look what happened to Kevin Durant when he chose to go to Golden State. He too, had to feel a little bit of hey, and look at Steph Curry. He went to play for his first championship and he was an underdog he was a less less route for this guy. He was the underdog you want to throw your chips behind. And as soon as he won, he became the villain. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. You don't realize it but as you go on for that number one spot you will be a spotlight will be put on you in every aspect of your life will be called under question to see if you even are worthy of that crown. You fight all the fights and there is somebody training right now to take that crown from you. Heavy is the head that wears the crown to be the best you will be tested the most. And so as we quest as we sojourn on the path to become the best we must understand that And we don't have to shy away from what we see down the road. But I draw back to this point of nobility, like the part of us that we must practice and become better at is become better all around. Like if you look at somebody like LeBrons career, he's pretty much a pitcher of a model citizen, on the court off the court, the way he practices the way he maintains his body. People don't understand what it takes to Pete perform. It's easy to criticize from outside, but it's hard to uphold from the inside. Never before and sports is somebody dominated the entirety of their career. no days off, are you capable of doing that? Are you building the skills around the base of your greatness in a way that allows it to naturally shine? Are you curing the holes in your game? Are you are you looking and hiring people to help see within your blind spots, so you can either correct them? Or substitute something in their place to compensate heavy is the head that bears the crown? So many of us want to be number one, but are we willing to take on the load that comes with being number one seen as number one, people want the fame, but hate the attention? They coexist? Heavy as the head that bears the crown? For Jay Z to be the number one rapper? He's only compared with itself? He's only compared with the farthest reaches of our imagination of what we think he should do? Is it fair? No. But heavy is the head that bears the crown. So I'm asking you not just to get stronger in your strength, but to get stronger and understanding that, that nobility, the inability for the world to corrupt you, that ability, inability for the acid to dissolve you. That inability for you to react to things requires a balance, a steady heart and a steady mind. And it's possible, but this is a long journey. And sometimes we're happy that we can play the game. Sometimes we're happy that we can compete at a level. But do we have the ability to compete at that level with consistency, day in day out at a high level are our routines and our habits prime for our perfect performance? Over and over again. Heavy is the head that wears the crown because somebody is gunning for your spot. And while you may be the greatest steward for what kind of momentum are you putting in place so that you can succeed? Heavy is the head that wears the crown.