Putting politics aside, I’m not a fan of the commercial’s message, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

This is the sort of self-help advice that sounds good in theory.

“If people say your dreams are crazy… Good. Stay that way.” “Don’t try to be the fastest runner in your school… Be the fastest ever.” “Don’t just become a tennis player… Become the greatest athlete ever.” “Don’t ask if your dreams are crazy. Ask if they are crazy enough.”

But in reality sets people up for failure.

And not the “failure is good, try again” kind-of-way, but to fail in such a way that they spend the most productive years of their life developing a very specific skill (singing, acting, dancing, skateboarding) only to learn that despite all those hours of “sacrificing everything” they have little to show for it (often becoming a burden on their friends, family, and society). For every #1 there are a million people who aren’t. It’s just that the #1 gets a spot on the Nike commercial so we don’t see the failure, suffering, regret of the 99% who swung for the fences and ended up on the couch.

We don’t see the father who failed to become a billionaire while losing his family in the process.

We don’t see the son who tells his mom he’s going to make it big only to end up homeless on the streets of L.A.

We don’t see the girl who sacrifices her childhood to become an Olympic gold medalist only to not make the U.S. Olympic team by a few milliseconds.

These stories are far more numerous.

So our family may say, “Are you sure? What if you fail? Maybe you should go to medical school instead.”

Our family doesn’t say this because they want us to fail, but because they want us to succeed.

You won’t be the fastest runner ever!

But maybe you can be the fastest runner at your school.

You won’t be the greatest singer ever!

But maybe you can supplement your income with singing.

I don’t think there’s any shame in being reasonable.

The amount of effort required to be great vs. the greatest is astronomical.

If you want to become a great football player…

Play football 5 days a week a few hours a day.

If you want to become the greatest football player ever…

Play football 6–7 days a week, 12 hours a day, eat and sleep according to a perfected schedule. Don’t miss a day. Don’t go out with friends. Don’t stay home with your family. Better yet don’t have a family. Cut everything out as much as possible that doesn’t directly lead you to be being better on the field. Keep your fingers crossed that despite all that training you don’t get hurt because then you’ll never be able to pay your parents back for letting you live rent-free so you could“pursue your dream.” And even if you’re one of the fortunate ones who become a professional football player, you probably won’t get paid much (potentially ending up in debt a few years after retirement). Plus many of these professionals end up feeling unhappy because they never became the greatest-of-all-time thereby in their own mind they still feel like a failure.

There is a serious tradeoff in trying to become the biggest fish in the biggest pond that just isn’t worth pursuing for the vast majority of us.

Here are some ways to live a happy successful life that will work for most people…

Marry someone you love.

Have kids.

Get a dog (or a cat if you insist).

Get a house.

Save up.

Work a job that requires skill and is useful.

Have close friends.

Give time, money, and energy to a charity.

Have hobbies you enjoy.

Exercise, eat relatively healthy, sleep, do some form of meditation, read, write.

I believe a culture that promotes these values is a culture that will be far happier than a culture that idolizes the 1% (but for Nike the 1% isn’t good enough anymore. You should be the 1% of the 1%).

An ad that pretends like we can become the greatest ever is simply selling us a fantasy in order to sell sneakers that leads some kids to become delusional and others to become insecure.

I think the Nike ad would have been better if it went something like this…

“Work hard. Go the extra mile. Embrace the sweat. There is glory in the grind. Don’t let the mental chatter stop you. Just do it. Don’t wait another moment to lace up, sit up, write down, dive in, and dance around. Just do it.”

The distinction is that we should focus on effort rather than unattainable results.

Control over the uncontrollable.

On the sacrifice-everything Nike ad people commented, “OMG this is so inspiring!”

But it’s inspiring so long as it stays theoretical. Once we are actually running on the track and looking down at our run time then reality kicks in and the idea of becoming the “greatest runner” of all time becomes so daunting that we stop running because the rational side of our brain kicks in and says, “What are you an idiot?! You’ll never be the greatest.”

Now some may contend that you just need to shut that side of your brain off by ramming down your throat more and more motivational videos.

But I say lower your expectations. Set the smallest goal possible that is still inspiring.

For example, achieving 1 million Medium followers is inspiring, but so is achieving your first 100. Why not focus on the latter? This way when self-doubt inevitably kicks in and says its impossible you can combat rationality with rationality by saying, “It is possible because so many other people have achieved it!” Asking BIG questions and reverse engineering BIG goals can help us come up with unique solutions, but ultimately our focus should be on small goals and just doing it.