Tell Me Who Your Heroes Are

One of my favourite questions to ask someone is, "who is your role model?" Among the cliches of heroic mum and dads –not saying that's a bad answer, there is no correct answer here– you'll find someone who's actually thought about this question and who has a relatively well-prepared answer to it.

Generally, what I've found is that those people are the ones that can justify very clearly their goals and aspirations. They also are people who have evidently made leaps towards their target.

I'm not saying that people who don't have a well-thought out, non-cliche answer aren't achieving their goals. Instead, those that are, can be seen actively in pursuit of it and I hope this article encourages you to consider your response to this question.

Not Your Typical Hero

There are two types of heroes.

1. Untouchable heroes. These are your Olympic medalists, presidents, and artists. These people exist in the TED talks and the Instagram clips of inspirational speeches. They are the people that you look up to and will probably never be standing next to. And maybe for good reason. It's probably where the quote to never meet your heroes come from.
2. Touchable heroes. These are people within arms-reach, people that you might see on a day-to-day basis and ones that might not be that much older than you.

I will be talking about the latter. I believe it is absolutely essential to have touchable heroes and that's because I believe they contribute to two core parts of your development as a person.

1. They show you what your potential can be.
2. They have unwavering belief in your success, sometimes as if they want you to win more than you do.

The Bannister Effect

Prior to 1954 and a guy named Roger Bannister, nobody had ever ran a 4 minute mile. It was unheard of with coaches calling it "physically impossible" and medical experts claiming that the runner's hearts would explode.

Yet when Bannister finally had his moment of glory, it was short-lived, because barely a month later, John Landy –another runner within arms-reach of Bannister the first time he broke it– had ran the mile a second faster than the Bannister's first sub-4 record.

A few months later, they did it both again within arms-reach of each other in the same race. Today, nobody bats an eye seeing D1 athletes run sub-4 minute miles in preliminary heats. In fact, people will find it odd when you're in a heat and you can't run a sub-4.

The funny thing I find, is that unlike other sports such as swimming, high jump and hurdles, –where over time better facilities, equipment and techniques emerged– running is monotone.

Humans are the only species able to outrun and outlast any other animal. We are literally biomechanically engineered to run optimally. This also means there is no secret sauce to run faster, you just have to run faster. Landy simply ran faster than Bannister, even if he wasn't the first to do it.

What I find that's interesting about this is that this phenomenon, which they called "The Bannister Effect" didn't just happen in the 4-minute mile.

It happened when Jim Hines broke the 10s barrier for the 100m, opening up a floodgate of what's now a regular occurence of sub-10 runners. It happened when Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler defied human limits and summited Mt. Everest without any supplementary oxygen, paving the way for 200 more to do the same. It also happened when Tony Hawk landed the world's first 900-degree spin which is nowadays surpassed by the 1080 and 1260-degree spins that teenagers do at your local skate park.

The Bannister Effect appears in so many different channels of excellence, endurance, physical capabilities, and mental focus, all with one underlying motivation: "If he can do it, so can I".

This is exactly what I believe your touchable heroes are meant to do. They show you not your limits but the floor of what's possible and the infinite potential that lives past that. Practically speaking, The Bannister Effect takes place when I see people who seemed like a regular guy in my student club now working at the frontiers of innovation or building their startup raising rounds with top VC firms or when I see the friends I took university calculus and first year econ with now making six figures within a 12-week internship.

Now I hope you know I'm not writing this because I'm a terribly shallow person that only looks at prestige with an equally disgusting ego. Instead, what I'm insisting you and I to consider is the fact that these goals or ambitions in life are just as equally within reach as those touchable heroes around you.

They help show you the floor of what you're capable of and you truly have nowhere to go but up when you surround yourself with touchable heroes.

Your Win Becomes Their Win

Every time I win, one of the first things I do is to share the good news to my supporters and sometimes they sound even more excited than me for my own win.

Here are some examples from some different people:

Figure 1: After I did well on an interview

Figure 2: After I got an offer

Figure 3: After I moved onto the final round

Figure 4: After I got the same offer lol

I think you get the point here.

I might be an optimistic person but you should know that people also want to believe in you, they want to root for an underdog. That's why people wanted Spain to win vs Argentina in the '26 World Cup, and why the 2026 Knicks playoffs run had overwhelming support despite being crushed by the analysts. When they see the work you're putting in, they want you to win even more.

Knowing the fact that someone else has had confidence in my ability to succeed eventually, regardless of what happens in the present, is special. Not everyone knows that –you would though if you had touchable heroes lol.

A good analogy I can think of is imagining yourself climbing upwards using a rope. The single rope you are climbing on is your own confidence. If that breaks, you're done for.

What can happen with touchable heroes, is that other people can also throw down ropes of confidence for you to hold on to as you're climbing, so if one breaks, you still have another to keep going. You might fall a little bit before grabbing the second one, but you're not at rock bottom where you started.

I vividly remember having this conversation before the result of one of my interviews came out.

And a few days later after this conversation, I got the offer.

One caveat is to be careful whose ropes you hold on to, some might be stronger and some might be looser. Like your personal confidence rope, others can also fail you. In those situations, find supports that you can trust and hold ever tighter to your own.

My Unsung Heroes

Over the past two years, I've grown an unfathomable amount as an engineer and as a person. I've reached floors that I thought previously were ceilings to look up to and I've also landed in places that I didn't think I'd ever end up or belong in.

While many of my heroes probably don't even remember that version of freshman me going into the coffee chats knowing absolutely nothing about what I didn't know, I want to shout those that I've learned a thing or two from.

If you're in here and reading this thank you! If I've met you and you're also reading this but you're not in here, I assure you, I've learned from you as well!

In no particular order:

• Charity -> Do hard things. Do good work. Be happy if you did your best.
• Scott -> Don't do something just because that's what other people expect of you. Do it for yourself and because you care.
• Joshua -> Convinced me to do software engineering despite my many doubts. You will always get good at what you're passionate about. You'll inevitably succeed if you like it. don't ever be scared of the competition.
• Ali -> The poor guy that I took way too much time from. Taught me how to learn to think technically and how to interview. Mock. Mock. Mock.
• Aghilan -> OG mentor, the most creative min maxer out there. Taught me how to LeetCode. Do 1 LeetCode a day and learn to enjoy it.
• Jay -> Enjoy your life. Don't be a bum and only think of recruiting. It is possible to work hard and equally have fun at the same time. In fact it's also far more efficient to do both than either alone.
• Isaac -> Quality over quantity.
• Kevin -> Don't half-a** something. Be proud of your work.
• Fred -> Comparison is the thief of joy.
• Henry -> Hustle very and I mean very hard.
• Andrew -> Humility in victory. Arguably one of the most humble yet most cracked guys I know. Character is always above skill.
• Michael -> Inspirational journey. Time isn't an excuse.
• Allan -> Give back. Even to people who you might not know that well.
• Erping -> Be patient in recruiting.
• Joanne -> Got rid of the white space on my resume. Look out for others.
• Grace -> Hard work, works. Extreme determination.
• Garreth -> Depth > breadth. Concentration > range. Also how to write a banger cold email.

"Tell me who your heroes are and I'll tell you how you'll turn out to be."

Warren Buffet