I’ve been thinking a lot over the past few months about what makes an expert, what gives a person authority. Today I came across this passage in Osho’s Living on Your Own Terms:

There is no need to impose your ideas on anybody. Who are you? What authority have you got to impose your ideas on others? You can share, you can tell, you can expose your heart. And if the other feels that something falls in tune with him, and chooses it, it is their decision, not your imposition.

To call yourself an expert is to attempt to take away the right that others have to choose whether your idea fits with them. It’s an attempt to justify imposing your ideas on others.

Those with real expertise don’t try to call themselves experts. They don’t try to impose their ideas. They just share.

Also published on Medium.