"Discovering a mentor is flawed can finally free you For roughly a decade, Malcolm X suppressed his critical thinking to remain loyal to Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam — and during that time his full intellectual and moral potential was capped by that submission. When he discovered that Muhammad had fathered children out of wedlock with young members of the organization and confronted him directly, the hosts describe what happened next as Malcolm being like 'one of those sponge dinosaurs that you put water on and they grow': 'the moment he realized that Elijah Muhammad was a false prophet, he was able to finally grow and become the Malcolm X that he always had the potential to be.' Discovering that a mentor or institution you revered is flawed is painful, but it is also the precise moment your own development can accelerate without a ceiling. Source: Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Malcolm X"