The music artist Prince once famously asked someone, "Do you know what inspires me?"
The individual, confused, asked, "No, what inspires you?"
Prince responded, "Me. I inspire me."
When I first read this, I rolled my eyes. What a pompous, arrogant thing to say, I thought to myself. Then, I thought about it some more.
What's wrong with being your own inspiration? Why does our inspiration have to come from everyone else around us — mentors, celebrities, god-like figures? Why can't we inspire ourselves with the work we do, the ideas we have, and the actions we take? We spend so much time looking for inspiration from other people, but we have great ideas and big dreams, so why can't we look inward?
The more I sat with it, the more it started to make sense. Maybe Prince wasn't being arrogant at all. Maybe he was just deeply connected to his own creativity, his own vision, and his own rhythm. Maybe what sounded like ego was actually just the reality that he believed in himself and wanted to be the ultimate original.
There's something powerful about finding motivation not in what others are doing, but in the quiet confidence that comes from knowing you're building something meaningful. That your ideas matter. That your perspective holds weight. That you can wake up in the morning and be proud of what you're creating, without needing external validation to confirm it.
When we're constantly chasing inspiration from other people, we start measuring our worth against their highlight reels. Their version of success. Their style. Their timing. And in the process, we water down the very things that make us unique. We start to question our own instincts, even when they've served us well.
But when you decide to become your own inspiration, everything shifts. You start to operate from a place of grounded confidence rather than comparison. You stop waiting for permission. You create momentum by trusting your own pace, your own voice, and your own way of showing up.
So now, when I think about that quote from Prince, I don't hear arrogance anymore. I hear ownership. I hear someone who stopped looking around and started looking within. And I think that's something more of us could use — to stop chasing someone else's light, and start realizing we've had our own all along.