When Your Competition Is Uber Drivers

Have you noticed how your taxi driver tells you he was a doctor back in India?

That isn’t an insult—it’s an observation about saturation. When credentials become abundant, they stop signaling excellence and start signaling density. Titles lose resolution. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a badge.

I was watching a clip about walking through Phuket, Thailand, where every few blocks there’s another Muay Thai or kickboxing gym—each one producing “champions.” It reminded me of the beauty pageant culture in the region too, where there’s a crown, a sash, and a competition for everything. At first glance it looks impressive. Then you realize the arena is doing most of the work.

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Southeast Asia (11 countries)

• ~50–60 major national pageants

• That’s ~4–6 per country on average

• Several countries (Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia) run multiple parallel national systems

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Europe (44 countries)

• ~60–80 major national pageants

• ~1–2 per country

• Most countries have one primary pageant, maybe one alternative

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Latin America (33 countries)

• ~50–70 major pageants

• ~1–2 per country

• Strong pageant culture, but usually centralized (one dominant contest)

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Africa (54 countries)

• ~40–60 major pageants

• < 1 per country on average

• Many countries have intermittent or dormant systems

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This is the trap of credentialism: when competition is weak or fragmented, people can hide behind titles, narratives, and luck.

Performance becomes performative.

Winning becomes ambiguous.

Nobody is forced to prove anything under pressure.

True capability only reveals itself in arenas of consequence—where outcomes are unforgiving, repetition is required, and luck can’t be leaned on twice. When the arena is real, stories collapse quickly.

What remains is what actually works.

That’s the difference between having a title and having capability. One survives abundance.

The other only survives consequence.