The real flex is staying soft

Hi fam,

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately:

The biggest flex in life isn’t what you achieve
it’s how soft you stay while you achieve it.

Because success has this strange way
of hardening people.

We hit milestones,
we build momentum,
and slowly, without noticing,
we start protecting our ego.
We stop listening.
We get defensive.
We lose curiosity.

And here’s the truth I keep coming back to:

The most magnetic people I know
the ones you want to follow,
the ones who pull teams and communities forward
are the ones who stayed soft.

Soft doesn’t mean weak.
It means open.
It means self-aware.
It means being willing to still be wrong,
even when you’re winning.

It’s easy to build a career.
It’s harder to build a character.

So today, maybe check in with yourself:

Where have you gotten harder than you need to be?
Where could you stay open,
even when it’s uncomfortable?

Because at the end of the day,
that’s the stuff people feel.
That’s the stuff that makes you unforgettable.

Cheers,
Markus