We Don’t Need to Worry About Influencing Millions of People
By: Colton Tanner Casados-Medve
Tags: Self, Social Media, Star Wars, Growth, Society

Master Yoda. Radio Ren.

For all the good the internet has done our society, there can be no denying that it’s also at the root of a lot of deceptive beliefs that have taken hold in popular consciousness.

One such belief is that in order to be significant, our digital presence needs to reach an increasingly larger number of individuals.

That might be true in terms of trying to make a living from the work we do, but it’s not true when it comes to our worth as human beings.

Nevertheless, we take those with high follower counts seriously— even though their numbers may be drastically inflated — while ignoring the perspectives of those with smaller audiences.

At the same time, we are inculcated with the fear that if we don’t achieve a high follower count, then this somehow proves the worthlessness of our point-of-view.

But this idea that the number of views we pull correlates in a direct way to how important we are in the grand scheme of things couldn’t be further from the truth.

Our worth isn’t a product of how many eyes and ears tune into our digital platforms, but rather of how successful we are in positively impacting at least one other person during our lives.

To illustrate this point, I want to talk about the journey of one of my favorite Star Wars characters, Master Yoda.

What makes his story so intriguing is how — over the course of the saga — he goes from presiding over a Jedi Order at the height of its power and galactic influence to hiding out on a swampy backwater planet, patiently waiting for a single student — Luke Skywalker — to come to him in search of training.

When the Jedi Order was alive and well, Master Yoda had thousands of students over the course of his centuries-long lifespan and was perhaps the most respected of the Jedi.

He was, quite literally, a living legend.

The size of his reach — or influence — was extensive.

That all changed when Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and assisted the Emperor with destroying the Jedi.

All of Yoda’s influence was eradicated in one fell instant.

There was nothing left for him to do except to go into hiding and hope that someday he would once again prove himself useful in the course of galactic events.

It’s interesting to note, however, how Yoda plays a role in the story from that point forward.

Rather than trying to rebuild the Jedi Order and train thousands of new warriors that could take on the Empire, he simply waited patiently for Luke Skywalker — the only person who could redeem his father Anakin— to prove himself ready for the Jedi training he’d need to fulfill his destiny.

Later on, in The Last Jedi, the ghost of Master Yoda returns once again to aid Luke by encouraging him to embrace failure as life’s greatest teacher, rather than as something to cause despair.

He once again plays a rather “hands-off” role from the main commotion of the larger storytelling arc unfolding between Ben Solo, Rey, and the other characters.

Although it’s subtle, I believe Yoda’s character arc reinforces the argument made above, which is that it’s not about how far our influence reaches, but rather what it does for those who do eventually come into contact with it.

Even while at the height of his influence, Master Yoda couldn’t stop the world of the Jedi from ending.

And even at the nadir of his existence — when he was living in the swamps of Dagobah — he was able to pass on the best of his wisdom to a student that could eventually go on to change the world.

This example shows us why it’s deceptive to think of a follower count as indicating significance or worth.

Everyone has been taught by someone.

Everyone has been impacted by someone.

Even the most famous among us had teachers that the history books acknowledge only briefly — if at all.

And yet, who’s to say how influential those teachers were on the folks that would eventually go on to become world-renowned figures, like Luke Skywalker became for the galaxy when he helped defeat the Empire?

The argument could be made that without Master Yoda, Luke would never have been able to resist the dark side when it was demanded of him.

So which is it?

Did Luke Skywalker save the galaxy by defeating Vader and the Emperor, or did Master Yoda save it by being the one to train Luke?

The answer is, of course, that neither figure deserves all the credit, because each played an instrumental role in the narrative.

It’s from this perspective that we should assess the value of our own lives.

We may not happen upon a huge audience, but that shouldn’t worry us because it’s not necessary to make a positive contribution to the world.

If we can train ourselves to see our worth as unrelated to our follower count and instead as a factor of how much our work is useful to just a single person, then we can rest assured that we are truly making an impact.

Or at the very least, that we are on the path toward doing so.