Submit to Greatness
Seek people whose mastery exposes your gaps, then let their strengths expand your range.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Submit to Greatness is a humility-based learning loop. Use experience to recognize patterns more quickly, including the pattern that another person possesses a form of mastery you do not. Instead of defending your status, identify the exact strength, observe how it operates, and allow it to lead in the situations where it is superior. Translate the pattern into your own decisions while preserving independent judgment. The emotional signal is important: being humbled becomes exciting because it proves there is another level to reach. Higgins contrasts this with his younger identity as the hero who had all the answers. He says that seeking and submitting to other people's strengths, including Gary Vaynerchuk's self-possession, unlocked more professional value and enjoyment than ruminating on his own success.
Origin
Higgins formed the method as he moved from a young leader who preferred telling everyone what to do toward a partner who actively seeks out and learns from other people's mastery.
Core principles
- 01Experience strengthens pattern recognition even when raw processing changes.
- 02Abstract knowledge is weaker than lessons imprinted through experience.
- 03Another person's mastery is evidence of room to grow, not a threat.
- 04Professional value expands when complementary greatness is allowed to lead.
- 05Curiosity prevents experience from hardening into obsolescence.
How to run it
- 1
Spot demonstrated mastery
Find someone whose repeated behavior and outcomes reveal a strength beyond your own. Look past style or packaging and evaluate the quality of the pattern.
Pro tip Choose a specific strength rather than declaring the whole person brilliant.
Watch out Charisma alone is not evidence of mastery.
- 2
Name your gap
State what this person's ability reveals that you do not yet know or embody. Treat the discomfort as information rather than a status threat.
Watch out Vague admiration produces little transferable learning.
- 3
Observe the operating pattern
Study how the person makes decisions, responds under pressure, and produces the result. Distinguish the mechanism from personality or surface style.
Pro tip Watch repeated behavior across contexts before drawing a conclusion.
- 4
Let the strength lead
Give the person authority or influence where their mastery is stronger than yours. Use complementary ability to improve the joint result.
Pro tip Define the domain of deference so humility does not become abdication.
Watch out Submitting to expertise does not mean surrendering ethics or independent judgment.
- 5
Integrate and continue
Apply the discovered pattern to your own development and seek the next person or domain that exposes another gap. Keep experience connected to curiosity.
Pro tip Measure growth by how your decisions change, not by proximity to impressive people.
In the wild
Higgins describes Gary Vaynerchuk as unusually reconciled to who he is and unconcerned with whether everyone likes him. Rather than feeling threatened by that quality, Higgins studies and submits to it as a form of greatness he has not mastered. He says seeking such opportunities has created more professional value and enjoyment than focusing on his own success.
→ Another person's complementary mastery becomes a source of growth and shared value.
Common mistakes
Defending the hero identity
Needing to have every answer prevents other people's strengths from improving the result.
Imitating surface style
Copying mannerisms misses the deeper decision pattern that produces the person's mastery.
Turning deference into abdication
Respect for expertise should remain bounded by independent judgment and responsibility.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for leaders and entrepreneurs who can access capable peers, partners, employees, or mentors.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when admiration is based on charisma without evidence or becomes uncritical imitation.
From the transcript
“everything about life boils down to pattern recognition skills ultimately”
“i get so excited to submit to the greatness of others i love being humbled by somebody's magic”
“i think i'm more successful when i submit to the greatness of others than when i ruminate my own success”
From the episode
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Matt Higgins