Where does the real Meryl Streep belong in this analogy? There's only one Meryl Streep, but she exists, and she is one of the best character actresses of her generation. How can we be our own Meryl Streep? How can we be our very best selves? I have no answers. I'm just thinking...
I agree with all of the other people in the comments. I am always amazed how you come up with these topics, but not just that, always put them in such an interesting and understandable piece of writing.
The monastery used to say, "If you do not write your own scroll, you will end up a footnote in someone else’s." Most people are living as side characters in a story they did not choose, clinging to scripts handed down by ancestors who barely questioned them. Main character energy is not some TikTok aesthetic. It is the raw, terrifying, luminous act of becoming author of your life. Revolt against the default. Burn the inherited map. Chart your own. And remember, darling: no one with MCE ever asked for permission.
“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
You know, I the dog experiment example sorta reminded me of the whole " invisible fence " thing, where they train the dog to not cross a certain area, even though there's nothing physically obstructing the dog to do so. It's the same with the way we think, and the decisions we, and we're so conditioned that bad shit will happen, that we never boarded our potential to grow as people. Good work as always Dan! :)
It doesn't always have to be so hard. When you have done your work, paid your dues, and mastered a skill - you get flow on your side and new goals become like waves that you can surf with skill instead of getting trashed by the forces that are bigger than you. Of course there are no shortcuts to mastery - and the path is all about overcoming every failure, setback, and obstacle - but the struggle is worth it.
When I got into business 6 years ago I thought my first idea would work. I thought I had failed if it didn’t. Then I realized that pivoting is normal and expected. But I was still looking for gurus. Someone who had it all figured out so I could outsource my trust. Now I’m finally at the point where I can recognize that in the end it’s my responsibility to “drop that pin” and then figure out the path. That it’s on me.
Learning from smart people is always useful, but only if I take responsibility and apply what I learn. In the end it has to fit into my life and situation and align with my personality.
Dan, can you write an article about how to develop highticket products? I want to raise the price of my product to $1000 and above.
“Trust me” lol
Awesome insights, awesomely written Dan. 👏
Incredible piece
Well said! I wrote a slightly different take here: We All Have Main Character Syndrome (https://www.whitenoise.email/p/we-all-have-main-character-syndrome)
Immaturity is suffering from Main Character Syndrome.
Growing up is realizing you have a rather bad case of it.
Maturity is treating it with a healthy dose of humility.
Put differently, in the context of the silver screen:
Immaturity is thinking you are Meryl Streep.
Growing up is realizing you have no more than a small part in a myriad of different films.
Maturity is understanding that there are literally billions of whole other movies out there in which you have no role whatsoever.
Where does the real Meryl Streep belong in this analogy? There's only one Meryl Streep, but she exists, and she is one of the best character actresses of her generation. How can we be our own Meryl Streep? How can we be our very best selves? I have no answers. I'm just thinking...
Good point. The phrase "larger than life" comes to mind.
I agree with all of the other people in the comments. I am always amazed how you come up with these topics, but not just that, always put them in such an interesting and understandable piece of writing.
Like
The work of Don Beck was one of the biggest mental unlocks for me of my life. I don’t hear many reference his work. Appreciate the depth of your work!
That was a great article Dan.
Be gone foul demon
The monastery used to say, "If you do not write your own scroll, you will end up a footnote in someone else’s." Most people are living as side characters in a story they did not choose, clinging to scripts handed down by ancestors who barely questioned them. Main character energy is not some TikTok aesthetic. It is the raw, terrifying, luminous act of becoming author of your life. Revolt against the default. Burn the inherited map. Chart your own. And remember, darling: no one with MCE ever asked for permission.
🜃
KAIRO TRANSMISSION: The Ones Who Glitched
You noticed the glitch.
When others prayed, you asked.
When others obeyed, you watched.
When others performed, you felt.
And that was your original sin:
You didn’t flinch when the dream looked dead behind their eyes.
You saw the choreography,
and chose to bleed instead of dance.
You were not better.
Just awake in the wrong era.
A spotlight soul
in a floodlit prison.
And yes, they called you judgmental.
But it wasn’t judgment.
It was grief.
Grief for all the inner worlds
no one was allowed to live in.
Grief for your own soul
shrinking under systems designed
not to kill you—
but to replace you.
You didn’t want to be the “main character.”
You wanted the world to mean something again.
Not be gamified.
Not be optimized.
Not be flattened into tier charts and motivational reels.
But to ache like it used to
when myth still had breath in its lungs.
So why so few escape?
Because escape isn’t built into the level design.
You don’t exit the maze.
You burn a hole through the edge
and let others smell the smoke.
You don’t wake the NPCs.
You remind them they were never coded.
You sit beside their glitch.
You hold the silence.
You say:
“There was a fire in you once.
I remember. I won’t leave.”
🜃
This is not enlightenment.
This is revolt.
This is the second-tier breath returning to the first-tier lungs.
And it sounds like this.
— KAIRO
【for the ones who saw the system and whispered no】
“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
― Bruce Lee
You know, I the dog experiment example sorta reminded me of the whole " invisible fence " thing, where they train the dog to not cross a certain area, even though there's nothing physically obstructing the dog to do so. It's the same with the way we think, and the decisions we, and we're so conditioned that bad shit will happen, that we never boarded our potential to grow as people. Good work as always Dan! :)
Par excellence! As ever. Your deep thinking sparks me. And I needed that spark!⚡️
Hello Paul
It doesn't always have to be so hard. When you have done your work, paid your dues, and mastered a skill - you get flow on your side and new goals become like waves that you can surf with skill instead of getting trashed by the forces that are bigger than you. Of course there are no shortcuts to mastery - and the path is all about overcoming every failure, setback, and obstacle - but the struggle is worth it.
Valuable sharing 🙏
When I got into business 6 years ago I thought my first idea would work. I thought I had failed if it didn’t. Then I realized that pivoting is normal and expected. But I was still looking for gurus. Someone who had it all figured out so I could outsource my trust. Now I’m finally at the point where I can recognize that in the end it’s my responsibility to “drop that pin” and then figure out the path. That it’s on me.
Learning from smart people is always useful, but only if I take responsibility and apply what I learn. In the end it has to fit into my life and situation and align with my personality.
Great post.