The strategic burden of being that white kid they forgot they already met.
Being always right too early comes with chaos reserved for people who consistently spot the iceberg before the Titanic even finishes boarding. You say the thing. You wave the flag. You write the memo. And then six months later, someone else “discovers” it — while everything is already on fire.
The pattern is so predictable I could set my watch by it:
- I warn about something.
- People ignore me.
- That exact thing happens.
- Someone else becomes a hero for fixing it.
- I get asked if I “know anyone who could help.”
Spoiler: I’m the one who could’ve helped.
You’re Just Early to Being Right
People say things like, “Wow, you’re really ahead of the curve.”
Which sounds like a compliment until you realize it’s code for:
“No one’s going to listen to you until they’ve screwed it up themselves.”
And that’s a lonely place to live.
You get used to being misunderstood. You get used to being the one who writes the deck, sees the flaw, spots the missed opportunity. You also get used to watching it fall apart exactly as you predicted. The post-crash silence is deafening. Occasionally, someone reaches out and says, “You were right.” (They think it helps.)
The ‘White Kid’ Paradox
One of the funniest moments in my career came when a well-known figure in my field was in crisis. They reached out to a colleague of mine and said:
“Get me that white kid!”
We had worked together. Spoken multiple times. Shared strategy sessions.
But in the moment of panic? All they remembered was that they needed someone who had the answers. They just didn’t remember me.
That’s the narrative. I’m the guy you remember when the ship was already halfway underwater — the one you should’ve listened to in the first place. The guy with receipts. The guy with decks no one read until they needed a scapegoat. Or a miracle.
I Don’t Say This for Pity
I say this because I know I’m not alone.
There are thousands of “early to be right” people out there. Strategists, creatives, analysts, social workers, teachers — all of us screaming into the void while the status quo drives off a cliff.
And it gets to you.
You start to wonder if maybe you’re the problem. If maybe you shouldn’t see things so clearly. If you should just… slow down, wait for everyone else to catch up, stop trying so hard.
But here’s the thing:
You don’t need to change your speed.
You just need to find people who value being early.
So Here’s to the Early Ones
To the ones who show up with the insight before the data.
To the ones who quietly fix everything behind the scenes.
To the ones who keep getting asked to prove themselves — to people who already owe them an apology.
You’re not too much. You’re not too early.
You’re just running a different race.
Keep your receipts. Document the chaos.
And when they finally say, “Get me that person…”
make damn sure they remember your name this time.
[…] anything but intense or overly critical. It’s a pattern I wrote about recently in a post called Always Right, Always Way Too Early. But I left out the next part of the story—the quiet […]