People are People

Others will respect you more when you respect yourself.

No one is better or more special than you are.

This weekend, Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of The Odyssey will make over $120M domestically and over $250 million globally, despite the controversy of its diverse casting. It gives me hope that the pendulum with swing back in Hollywood.

This is a photo from 2007 that I took with Anne Hathaway, who plays Penelope. We were both shopping at the same store in the West Village in New York. She was shopping for Christmas gifts and we started chatting. This was after The Princess Diaries and the same year The Devil Wears Prada had come out, so I obviously knew who she was. But I talked to her like any other person, because at the end of the day, she’s running errands like anyone else. After we talked, I asked if she would take a photo with me and she happily obliged.

Recently, an extremely influential and powerful friend of mine in the sports industry, was with me in a room full of billionaires and industry titans. We’ve been friends since we were in business school in our mid-twenties, so he’s seen me in many situations. He asked me after we left the room how I was so comfortable in that room just floating around from person to person like it was nothing. He said he even he still gets intimidated around people like that, even though he’s around NFL owners and players all the time.

I told him, they’re all just people. No one is better than anyone else. They each have their own stories and journeys. Some people are born into money and power, and other people find their way to it. But that doesn’t change the fact that they worry about their loved ones, they worry about their health, they still have fears and insecurities, and are still human. At the end of the day, famous or rich, they still want to be treated with respect and care.

I find that too many people make themselves small when around other people. They think they are not worthy or that they have to defer to someone else. That makes people either feel uncomfortable or it makes them feel superior to you. And that is never a good position to be in. People can take advantage of you when you put yourself in a position of weakness. Whether it be at your job, negotiating the price of a new car, or in a relationship. Always be your full self and don’t change that because of who you are with.

When people feel superior to you, they can be dismissive at best, or abusive at worst. They can use that power to intimidate and take advantage of you. It could be a bad manager who takes credit for your work. It can be a spouse who controls you. People abuse positions of authority all of the time if you let them. This is why it’s so important to know your self-worth and remind yourself that they are just a person like anyone else. When stranded on a desert island, without their money, fame or titles, they are just as vulnerable as you are.

People will respect you more when you respect yourself. The sooner you realize this, the more powerful you will be.