Dear Younger Fred… one day, your little brother will have to teach you how to run…
This weekend, you ran your first 10K. Ever!
For some people, that's nothing.
For you… it was something you had convinced yourself you couldn't do…
You exercise.
You run on the treadmill.
Your body was probably capable of it for a long time.
Your mind wasn't.
Every time you thought about 10K, somewhere in your head was the same little voice…
"I don't think I can do that."
Then your little brother offered to run it with you.
There's something humbling about that.
You're the older brother.
You're supposed to be the one showing him the way. 😂
Except this time… you needed him.
And what makes this story even more ridiculous is that he had already run 35 km that morning. Thirty-five!!
Then came back to casually run another 10K beside his older brother. 😂
But here's the part I'll remember...
He never made me feel slow...
He never made me feel like I was holding him back...
He just stayed beside me.
When I went too fast, he slowed me down.
When I started getting tired, he reminded me to settle in.
And when that familiar voice started telling me I probably couldn't finish…
he was still there.
One kilometer became five...
Five became eight...
And eventually…10KM!
Something I had told myself I couldn't do for years was suddenly behind me.
And somewhere during that run, I realized my little brother wasn't just teaching me how to run 10K.
He was reminding me how to receive help.
I think that gets harder as we get older.
Especially when people start depending on us.
We become the advisor.
The leader.
The parent.
The person others come to when they don't know what to do.
And without realizing it… sometimes we start believing we're supposed to have the answers too.
But we don't.
And maybe we're not supposed to.
There is something incredibly freeing about being able to say…
I don't know.
Can you teach me?
Can you run beside me for a while?
Because wisdom doesn't always come from someone older.
It doesn't care about titles.
It doesn't care who earns more money… who has more experience… or whose name sits higher on an organizational chart...
Sometimes the person who has something to teach you has been looking up to you their entire life.
And if your ego gets in the way…you might miss it.
So Younger Fred…
never become so successful that you forget how to be taught.
There will always be someone who knows something you don't.
Be humble enough to ask.
Be curious enough to listen.
And when you're lucky enough to have someone willing to slow down and run beside you…
be grateful enough to notice. ❤️
Thanks, little bro! Love you Tony Zhou!
Baaaaam — that's it for today.
See you next Thursday.
Stay curious,
Fred
