Emulating My Heroes
I remember being 11 years old and watching a Manchester United match on TV with my dad. Cristiano Ronaldo had just signed for the team. He blazed down the wing, threw defenders off with his signature stepover move, and took a shot on goal. My dad turned to me and said, “This is magic. This guy is going to be the best player in the world.”
My dad was the original influencer in my life. He taught me and my twin brother to appreciate the sport of soccer. But my love for the sport was solidified by the players themselves, who I considered my heroes. Ronaldo’s speed, Beckham’s free kicks, and Ronaldinho’s trickery left me in disbelief while watching matches on TV. I would go out to the field afterwards and try to copy what I had just seen. More often than not, I could not.
I found myself not being able to emulate my heroes through natural ability. So I emulated them in other ways - from how I taped up my shinguards, to how I tucked in my jersey, to how I celebrated a (rare) goal, to what cleats I decided to wear. Cleats became a particular obsession. Lacing up the same ones as your hero made you feel like you were them, not too dissimilar to how you felt as a kid wearing your Batman costume on Halloween.
When we like something, we tend to want to emulate the person who does that thing the best. As an aspiring soccer player, that meant dressing up and acting like Cristiano Ronaldo. In my current job as an investor, that means setting up a digital presence like Bill Gurley and quoting Warren Buffett.
Keeping Up With My Heroes
I was fortunate to grow up with a television in my living room and a cable subscription that included coverage of major soccer leagues. I could watch my heroes perform their magic with the click of a remote. Contrast that to my dad’s childhood - he developed a love for soccer by listening to matches on the radio.
As TV networks grew, so did the people that were being broadcasted. The world could watch Cristiano Ronaldo run up and down a field on a Saturday, not just the fans in the stadium. It was the TV networks that turned athletes into celebrities and made them rich*.
The growth of TV networks put our heroes in our living rooms on a weekly basis. The growth of internet networks, like Instagram and Facebook, made them even more prominent in our lives. I used to watch Cristiano Ronaldo for 90 minutes on a Saturday. Now, I check in on his daily life every few hours by opening up Instagram on my phone.
The internet is making our heroes more accessible than ever. As a result, these heroes are becoming more valuable than ever. It’s no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo now has his own clothing line, hotel chain, and video game that he promotes through his internet profiles.
We’re still in the early innings of how we will discover our heroes. On the internet, anyone can stream their performances in the hopes of finding an audience. In 2007, a 13 year old Justin Bieber began uploading his songs on YouTube, which we are all familiar with as the largest video hosting service and search engine on the internet. By 2008, Justin amassed 70k views and was discovered by a record label. As of January 31st, 2021, Justin has amassed 23bn views on YouTube alone. More recently, TikTok has revolutionized online audience building by leveraging machine learning algorithms to fully automate what content is served to users. In doing so, TikTok created many new breakout stars, including Charli D’Amelio who has become known for her dancing skills.
How we interact with our heroes is also likely to evolve. TV networks and early internet networks made it easy for fans to passively watch their heroes during their main performances. Going forward, there is a growing opportunity for fans to actively engage with their heroes in a much broader context. JuJu Smith-Schuster, a star wide receiver in the NFL, uses Twitch to stream himself playing video games and chat with his fans in real-time. Recently, he dropped hints about his football career while on one of those live streams. Other internet properties like Patreon, Cameo, Clubhouse, Moment House, and Intro are also enabling more intimate forms of engagement with heroes, in certain cases even allowing you to speak with them directly.
One thing is certain. People who have abilities that others can’t emulate are our heroes-in-the-making. Eventually, the internet will grant them an audience and a career.
Footnotes
* Athlete salaries have grown tremendously over time, a result of teams generating increasing revenue from media rights deals. Athletes also receive endorsement deals from brands that want to have their logo placed on players as they perform in their sport and increasingly out of the stadium as well. Combined, these salaries and endorsement deals have grown to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the best athletes.