One piece spoilers… but at this point it’s like… years old so I feel safe writing about it. I think I read somewhere on the internet that Ace had to die in order for one piece to move forward and I’m kinda in agreement. In regards to one piece… Luffy was weaker than Ace at it would always be that way in the foreseeable future. Ace was the legitimate successor to the last pirate king so he would probably be favored to become the next pirate king. Plus he was being groomed by whitebeard. Ace had to die in order for Luffy to grow and surpass him.

I think the parallel to that is that in real life… at some point in time you need to stop looking up to people. There are no big brothers in the real world. When I first moved to Silicon Valley I was awed by the talent that I met. There were people who were so smart and did things so fast. It forced me to work hard and level up… but then at some point in time I realized that I’m just as good as all the amazingly great people. I started seeing myself as a peer and I think that actually helped me get better faster. It kind of lowered the barrier that I put on myself.

There were a couple of instances that reminded me of it. When someone good says it can’t be done. And then I end up solving it. It’s like… yeah it could be done. You know.. when you think that something can’t be done… or that it’s hard… you won’t be able to do it. I think the same thing applies when you look up to people. When you look up to people… it limits your growth and makes it harder to surpass them and get better.

I’ve started to just see everyone as peers now. When I learn something new… and I meet a master. There’s like tons of respect and uh… I’m still in awe of the master. But I know that… the master isn’t magical. It’s just the culmination of hard work, time and practice. And I know that I’ll reach master class and become on the same level.

tl;dr - Ace had to die because he overshadowed Luffy. In real life… your heroes don’t die… but it’s better that they die in your mind