Almost every child grows up with a parent telling them, “You’re special.” Parents tell their children this because they want them to believe that they are special; that they’re going to do great things in this world because of the fact they are special. They are the only version of themselves because they are themselves.

We put a mindset in children that because they are special they can do anything. They can do anything they want in the world because they’re “special.” The same time a mother is telling her child that they’re special the neighbor is saying the same thing to her kid, and the next neighbor saying the same thing to her kid. At what point does everybody stop being special and we’re all the same?

If everyone is taught that they are special then we are really telling them we’re not. The meaning of special is that it’s one of a kind; that there’s no other like it. If everyone is special, nobody is special. It’s been said before but only because it’s true.
The truth is nobody is special. Angry parents and optimists can fight with me on this stance, but it’s what I believe. We’re all born humans; we’re all born the same. Just because we’re all the same doesn’t mean we have to act like it.

I believe that instead of telling our children, “You’re special,” we should tell them, “You can do something special.”

Millions of years ago a fish crawled out of the water and started a new era that would slowly lead to what we call the present. There was nothing special about that fish; it was a fish. There were millions of fish just like it. But we think that fish was special because of what it did.

The fact that the fish was special didn’t have anything to do with the accomplishment. What happened was a totally normal fish did the unordinary, the extraordinary.

If we give people the idea that because they’re unique and special life will be easy for them. Why would life be hard for someone who was special? But if we give the idea that it’s not who we are that matters, but what we do, then we would be moving along a different road.

Nobody will ever hand you a future. The entire world is against every person in it. If life was perfect we wouldn’t call it life. The fact of the matter is that we have to work for what we want; sometimes we have to work for what we need.

But if you want more than what life is willing to spare, then you have to have a plan besides being special. We are all born equal at birth. Nobody is born special. It’s what you do with your normal life that will make it extraordinary. Don’t think special, act special.