First, I think the blog post is grasping at something important which is that we have this "just do it" mentality which has some obvious deficiencies. However

First, I think the blog post is grasping at something important which is that we have this "just do it" mentality which has some obvious deficiencies. However I still agree with you. I think one has to start with reasonable limits and accept that no matter how good you are there will always at least sometimes be someone better than you. That's not a problem though. The difficulty is in forming a way of thinking about the world that allows us to become extraordinary. One major deficiency in the blog post is that it emphasizes natural advantages too much. One major pitfall there is that emphasizing natural advantages over effort means that success becomes more like an innate trait rather than the product of a lot of effort at improvement. Natural advantages do exist, but improvement is the key still and this takes effort. My view is very different, abstract, and metaphorical. I think that a person's attitude should be seen like an aviator's attitude (if you don't get the reference, see http://www.marvgolden.com/bad-attitude-t-shirt.html http://www.marvgolden.com/bad-attitude-t-shirt.html). It's not how you react. It's your direction and where you are headed. The "bad attitude" T-shirt is funny because the bad attitude is flying at a bad angle towards the ground. Another way to look at it is to borrow the old person-as-chariot metaphor found both in Plato and the Mahabharata, and update it for the times: I am the charioteer. My body is the chariot. My emotions are the horses. My thoughts are the reins. But, I am the charioteer. One can also borrow the person-as-tree metaphor found in Greek and Norse myth. Grow like a tree and be not afraid of shadows: become grounded in the darkness of the earth below and then reach up towards the light above. The nice thing about these metaphors is that they can be repurposed as needed, but doing that right depends on "attitude."