Do Not Follow Footsteps—Chase What They Were Running Toward
Let’s get this out of the way: Most of us are playing a boring game of professional Simon Says. We chase titles, copy strategies, mimic resumes, and download our personalities from LinkedIn influencers like they’re iOS updates. We don’t want to be great—we want to look like someone who already is.
Enter the quote:
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of others, instead, seek what they sought.”
A punch to the teeth. A reminder that emulating Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck doesn’t make you Steve Jobs. It makes you a cosplay CEO.
Footsteps Are Easy. Seeking Is Hard.
We live in a culture obsessed with shortcuts. “Just tell me what book to read.” “What’s Elon’s daily routine?” “What podcast does Bezos listen to while brushing his teeth?” We want the playlist, not the pain. The cheat sheet, not the chase.
Following in someone’s footsteps feels safe. They already succeeded, right? Just walk where they walked.
Except…that’s not how it works.
Steve Jobs didn’t follow anyone’s footsteps. He torched the path. Oprah wasn’t handed a daytime TV show—she clawed her way through systemic racism and sexism and then redefined what influence was. Even Picasso said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal”—but what he meant was: steal the intention, not the technique. Don’t mimic the brushstroke. Understand why the brush was picked up in the first place.
Seek What They Sought—What Does That Even Mean?
It means you go after purpose, not process.
It means instead of copying the hustle porn morning routine of some founder who wakes up at 4 a.m., eats raw liver, and does a gratitude journal in a cryo-chamber—you ask, what were they chasing? Was it freedom? Was it impact? Was it solving a pain point that kept them up at night?
Jeff Bezos didn’t build Amazon by asking, “What did Walmart do?” He asked, “What does the customer want tomorrow that they don’t even know they want today?” Elon Musk isn’t copying Henry Ford. He’s trying to colonize Mars. (And yes, he’s burning bridges faster than rocket fuel, but you can’t say the guy lacks vision.)
What they sought—that’s the gold.
Following Is About Applause. Seeking Is About Obsession.
If you want to follow, you’ll spend your life performing for approval. You’ll post wins, hide losses, and optimize for optics. You’ll build a brand, not a body of work. You’ll keep looking over your shoulder to see who’s clapping—until you realize no one is, because they’re too busy editing their own highlight reel.
But if you seek—you’ll lose track of the applause. You’ll be too deep in the work. You’ll care less about perception and more about progress. Seeking is not sexy. It’s lonely. It’s gritty. It’s messy as hell. But it’s also where all the good stuff lives—breakthroughs, resilience, original thought, and that sweet dopamine hit when something finally clicks.
Want to be great? Get weird. Go off-script. If everyone’s zigging, try a cartwheel.
The Danger of Imitation in the Age of Influence
Let’s be real: We live in the most copy-paste generation of all time. Everyone wants to be “authentic,” but they're using the same font, same buzzwords, and same damn aesthetic. Look at LinkedIn. It’s not networking—it’s synchronized swimming in business casual.
The problem? Imitation scales. And that’s a bug, not a feature. When you mass-produce the same path, you dilute its value. Everyone’s “building community.” Everyone’s a “thought leader.” Everyone’s “passionate about impact.”
No one’s asking: Am I even interested in what this path leads to?
You want to stand out? Don’t follow the viral breadcrumbs. Seek the deeper hunger. The reason behind the reasons. That’s how movements start. That’s how legends are built.
Seeking Demands a Relationship with Discomfort
When you follow, the road is paved. GPS is on. Exit signs are clearly marked. Feedback is immediate: likes, shares, promotions.
When you seek? It’s dark. Unmarked. You’ll doubt yourself. You’ll fumble. You might even look like a fool. And that’s exactly the point.
Billie Jean King didn’t become a cultural icon by trying to fit in. She challenged power structures—on the court and off. Satya Nadella didn’t just “do what Ballmer did but better.” He sought empathy and cloud dominance—not stock price band-aids.
The truth? Comfort is the enemy of seeking. You can’t chart a new path from a beanbag chair.
If You Want to Matter—Choose Curiosity Over Convention
History doesn’t remember the mimics. It remembers the ones who asked better questions.
Don’t ask, “What’s the roadmap to success?” Ask, “What’s worth getting lost for?”
Don’t ask, “How did they do it?” Ask, “Why did they do it?”
Because once you’re chasing what they sought—you’re no longer bound by their limitations. You stop worshipping resumes and start writing your own. You stop measuring success by applause and start measuring it by alignment.
Final Thought: Become the Footsteps Others Try to Follow
Here’s the punchline: If you do this right—if you actually chase what matters to you—someday someone will be tempted to follow your footsteps.
And when they do, tell them the truth:
“Don’t be like me. Don’t chase what I have. Chase what I chased.”
Because the journey isn’t the brand. The job. The title. The round of funding.
The journey is the search. And if you’ve got the guts to go looking for what actually lights your fire—you're already ahead of most.
Not in their footsteps.
On your path.
Let’s go.