“Be Curious, Not Judgemental”

A way of life

What started as my favourite scene in Ted Lasso has become a personal compass.

The TL;DR is that Ted’s boss has an obnoxious ex-husband (Rupert) trying to buy out her football club. In a bar, Ted challenges him to a game of darts with his ownership stake at the table. Rupert thinks nothing of Ted’s abilities and agrees to the game.

Then he starts his monologue:

“Guys have underestimated me my entire life and for years I never understood why — it used to really bother me. Then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall there and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental’ I like that” (Ted throws a dart)

“So I get back in my care and I’m driving to work and all of a sudden it hits me — all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything all figured out, so they judged everything and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me — who I was had nothing to do with it…