Years ago, we used to read about the people whose exploits in a certain field brought them fame and fortune. They inspired us and encouraged us to get to their heady heights.

If we were lucky, we got to see them do what they were the best at, and if we were really lucky, maybe we got to actually meet them once.

Then we got to listen to them or watch them on electronic devices as they made the ridiculously difficult look easy. We were more regularly exposed to the greatness of modern day gladiators, the greatness that we admired but didn’t yet have.

Nowadays, the Internet assails us with a 24/7 bombardment of greatness, or people claiming greatness. It’s especially true in business, where you hear success stories in sales, marketing, technology and social media – and they’re simply the ones I tend to see – on a more or less constant basis. Of course, the people getting all the lion’s share of the attention are the leaders in their field, or they’re doing a very good job of moving in that direction. They are today’s business heroes.

It’s easy to get an inferiority complex when you’re swamped by information from people who seem to be better than you at what you do. They must be better, right, because it’s here for all to see?

I try to stay focused on what I’m doing, learning from the great ideas out there, and trying things that are proven to have worked, but mostly staying true to my own instinct and my own path.

The Internet is an amazing, inspiring mechanism, but it can also be a hugely distracting and detracting one.