What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past, not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Alexander the Great had an intense dislike for his father, King Philip of Macedonia. He hated Philip’s cunning, cautious style of ruling, his bombastic speeches, his drinking, and whoring, and other wastes of time he had preoccupied himself with. Alexander knew that he had to make himself the very opposite of his domineering father. He would force himself to be bold and reckless. He would control his tongue and be a man of few words, and he would not lose precious time in pursuit of pleasures that brought no glory. Alexander also resented the fact that Philip had conquered most of Greece. “My father will go on conquering until there is nothing extraordinary left for me to do,” he once complained.

While other sons of powerful men were content to inherit wealth and live a life of leisure, Alexander wanted only to outdo his father, to obliterate Philip’s name from history by surpassing his accomplishments. Over the years, Alexander’s defiance of his father grew bolder and bolder. One day, the two men held a heated argument before an entire court. Philip drew his sword as if to strike his son. Having drunk too much, though, the king stumbled. Alexander pointed at his father and jeered, “Men of Macedonia, see there the man who is preparing to pass from Europe to Asia. He cannot pass from one table to another without falling.”

Philip’s previous advisors counselled Alexander, who is now the king, to proceed cautiously and do as Philip has done, conquer through cunning. But Alexander would do things his way. Alexander had reunited the Greek empire with brutal efficiency, and then he set his eyes on Persia, the prize that had eluded his father. If he defeated the Persians, Alexander would finally surpass Philip in his glory and fame.

Alexander crossed into Asia with 35,000 men to face a Persian army numbering in over a million. Before engaging the Persians in battle, he passed through the town of Gordium. Here in this town, there stood an ancient chariot tied with cords made of the rind of a cornel tree. Legend had it that any man who could undo these cords, the Gordion knot would rule the world. Many had tried to untie the enormous and intricate knot but none had succeeded. Alexander, seeing he could not possibly untie the knot with his bare hands, took out his sword and with one slash cut it in half. This symbolic gesture showed the world that he would not do like others but would blaze his own path.

Remember: You are your own father. Do not let yourself spend years creating yourself only to let your guard down and allow the ghost of the past—father, habit, history—to sneak back in.

Burn the instruction manuals: When General Douglas MacArthur took charge of American forces in the Philippines in World War II, an aide gave him a book of instructions from predecessors. MacArthur told him to burn the manual and any copies; he would make his own decisions in his own way. Similarly, you should reject precedent, and learn to respond to circumstances, which will be different from those of the past.