It’s a classic underdog story. The weakest of a group goes through a massive transformation and learns the tools to grow.

Personally, games have been an effective way for me to learn about real life, so the setting of this series resonated deeply with me.

The description of the world of Solo Leveling that stood out the most to me was ‘I’ve never heard of a hunter that gets better over time’. This mindset feels very relevant to our current world. It makes me think of how many people decide to settle, truly believing they’ve hit their absolute peak. I thought this way myself when early on in life I won the state championship in gymnastics for my age group. It felt like no matter how hard I tried, that accomplishment would never be topped.

Similar to the MC, a near death experience forced me to reconsider my actual capabilities, and push for a new height.

It’s been no easy task, though.

In Solo Leveling, the beginning of the MC’s growth, the objectives are simple, yet hard. And the penalty was set by someone else, but it’s a valid way to incentivize the habit. For MC, the daily workout tasks were grueling, but seeing them get easier and avoiding the harsh penalty became the momentum to build himself and his body.

Another important lesson from the story was seeing how when a person starts out weak, their empathy is higher. The characters that MC is most concerned with are those who were considerate and kind to him or other weak people. Once the roles flipped, MC is more than happy to look out for them.

Strength means a lot more when the experiences of being weak have such a negative impact on your life. I was happy to see that played out fictionally. It was also helpful to see the contrast of other characters in the show who had 0 empathy for the weak. The consequences can be positive in the short-term, but those without empathy almost always lose in the long term.

Coming from the fitness space, there are many examples of people who became fit, but stay humble and remember where they came from. They teach others who are coming up in the space, and don’t give them a hard time. This is more common than the opposite, where people become spiteful and mean to those worse than them. To me, this is often the product of where you came from. Those who were already athletic and strong are more likely to be inconsiderate of those who had to build up from very little.

There are many spaces like this, and some people become too scared to enter just for the percentage of people who have low tolerance for newbies.

This story paints an example of how someone who was initially rejected by a community can go through a massive growth period, not without its own difficulties, and rise to the top. David Goggins couldn’t read throughout high school, yet in his middle age he became a bestselling author. It is possible.