Teachers Who Should Be Students

The Hotpot | February, 2026 | By Lisanne

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There is a subtle, almost invisible trap in success:

the temptation to believe that because you were there when it happened, you were the sole reason it worked.

I’ve watched it happen, and I’ve felt the pull myself. We join a project that breathes with its own life, and suddenly, our curiosity hardens into conviction.

We stop asking and start announcing more. We slowly trade the messy, fertile ground of the student for the polished stillness of a pedestal.

But a pedestal is a precarious place; it’s where you stop moving, and eventually, where you stop growing.

I wonder why we are so terrified of being the learner. To admit we don’t know yet.
We can treat authority like armor, thinking it will protect us or command respect.

But the most magnetic person in the room is rarely the one with all the answers—it’s the one who is still hungry enough to look for them.

When we hide our “student status” to avoid appearing small, we lose the very thing that made us sharp. True humility isn’t a lack of confidence to me; it’s the expansive space you leave open for the world to still teach you something. It’s the realization that being “finished” is actually a dead end.

Maybe the goal isn’t to graduate. Maybe the goal is to stay in the back of the classroom, notes in hand, indefinitely.
To just do the work, and be the person who is still learning how to do it better.

Because the moment we decide we are the authority, we might stop observing what the work actually needs. We start serving our ego’s hunger for relevance instead of the project’s need for truth.

What if we just let go of the need to be the expert? I suspect we might see more clearly what’s right in front of us.

Thank you for reading! The question of today:

When was the last time you let yourself feel the freedom of “not knowing”? What did you see then that you usually miss?

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on success. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.