God give me the confidence of a mediocre white dude

This original tweet by writer Sara Hagi has passed around the world in varying iterations via retweets, articles, and coffee mugs.

It resonates for a reason: Mediocre white men have historically been rewarded disproportionately for their mediocre work.

I could rant about how unfair it is that they get to pass. But instead, I’d like to talk about the less cynical side of Hagi’s tweet, in fact the very thing she's praying for—to have the confidence of these dudes.

Really. Just imagine what it would be like to feel as bold as these numpties:

• Then 22-year-old Jake Paul, who made millions exploiting teenagers and bragging about it on Youtube.

• The guys who invented a glove to solve the non-existent problem of removing a tampon. And GOT FUNDED.

• The bros who made a Netflix movie about minimalism as though they had invented the concept without even shrugging in the direction of truly non-mediocre, non-white, minimalism-practicing people like, idk—Gandhi?

Mediocre white men like these are wildly confident! Why wouldn’t they be? Privilege is on their side! History is on their side! They're surrounded by people who look just like them who are cheering them on between chugs of keto protein shakes!

But might it be worth it to try on that confidence for size?

• If you’re afraid to try something new, ask yourself if someone less smart than you tried it before and succeeded.

• If you’re afraid that what you’re doing won’t provide adequate value, think about those tampon glove dodos! They’d never let that doubt stop them.

• If you're afraid to fail publicly and look like an idiot, well, plenty of people fail publicly without looking like idiots (take Stacey Abrams, who lost a gubernatorial election but started the historic Fair Fight movement), and besides, people (e.g. Kardashians & friends) become successful while looking like idiots all the time.

What’s the real risk involved in stepping into your power?