We all start somewhere. The gap between where you are and where you want to be isn't a canyon—it's a bridge built one step at a time. This is your reminder that every expert you admire was once exactly where you are now: at the beginning, uncertain, and learning.
There's a photograph I think about sometimes. It's of Michael Jordan—arguably the greatest basketball player ever—sitting on a bench during his high school years, having just been cut from the varsity team. Not good enough, they said. Too short, too raw, too... amateur.
That word. Amateur. We use it like it's a life sentence, don't we? As if being new at something is a character flaw rather than the natural starting point of literally everyone who has ever achieved anything.
The Myth of Natural Talent
Here's what nobody tells you when you're starting out: those people you admire, the ones who make it look effortless, they weren't born that way. Every single one of them had a first day. A first time they held that guitar and couldn't make it sound like anything but noise. A first line of code that wouldn't run. A first business idea that flopped spectacularly.
We see the highlight reel and forget about the hundreds of hours of footage that ended up on the cutting room floor. We see the masterpiece and forget that the artist's early sketches were probably terrible. We see the confident professional and forget they once had sweaty palms in their first client meeting.
The difference between them and someone who gave up isn't talent. It's that they kept showing up after the part where they were bad at it.
Permission to Be a Beginner
Can I tell you something that might change everything? You don't need permission to start, but I'm giving it to you anyway: It's okay to be bad at something new. In fact, it's necessary.
Think about it. A baby learning to walk doesn't look at other toddlers running around and think, "Well, I guess walking isn't for me." They fall. They get up. They fall again. They keep trying because they don't yet have that voice in their head telling them they should already be good at this.
Somewhere along the way, we lost that. We developed this strange idea that we should be instantly competent at new things, and if we're not, it means we don't have what it takes. That's not wisdom. That's fear dressed up as realism.
The Beauty of the Beginner's Mind
There's a concept in called "beginner's mind"—approaching something with openness and enthusiasm, without preconceptions. But here's what they don't always mention: beginner's mind isn't just beautiful, it's also brutal.
When you're a beginner, you're constantly confronting what you don't know. Your ego takes a beating every single day. You make mistakes in front of people. You ask questions that might sound stupid. You produce work that doesn't match the vision in your head.
This discomfort? This is where growth lives. Not in the comfortable zone where you're already good, but in the awkward, frustrating space where you're figuring it out.
Every Professional Remembers
Ask any professional about their journey, and if they're honest, they'll tell you about the acute embarrassments during the beginnings. The writer will remember the terrible first drafts they're glad no one will ever see. The surgeon will remember the first time their hands shook during a procedure. The CEO will remember the pitch that bombed so badly they wanted to quit. The programmer will remember the first live project deployed with the volume of errors and time it took, and the list goes on and on
They remember because those moments weren't obstacles to their success; they were the foundation of it. You cannot become a professional without being an amateur first. You cannot reach mastery without starting as a beginner. There is no shortcut around this truth.
The Gap Between Today and Tomorrow
Right now, there's something you want to do, learn, or become. Maybe you've been thinking about it for weeks, months, or years. And maybe you haven't started because you're not "ready" yet. You need to learn more first. Practice in private. Wait until conditions are perfect.
But here's what actually happens while you wait: nothing. The gap between where you are and where you want to be doesn't close by itself. It closes one imperfect action at a time.
That professional you admire? They didn't wait until they felt ready. They felt the same fear and did it anyway. They started while they were still figuring it out. They learned in public, made mistakes people could see, and kept going.
Start Badly, Start Today
The secret nobody wants to hear is this: you will be bad at first, and that's not a problem to solve; it's the process to embrace.
Write the bad first draft. Give the shaky presentation. Build the clunky prototype. Upload the imperfect video. Send the email even though you're not sure of the words. Make the art that doesn't quite capture what you see in your mind. But then, that doesn't mean that you should not keep an eye out for excellence. The reality is, your excellence at the time might not be enough at a global level, but then, do your best at every point in time when it is needed.
Do it badly, but do it. Because "badly" is not the opposite of "well"; it's the path to it.
Tomorrow's Master is Today's Beginner
Ten years from now, someone will look at you and think, "I wish I could do what they do." And you'll remember this moment, the moment before you started, when it felt impossible, when you didn't think you had what it takes.
You'll remember, and hopefully, you'll tell them the same truth someone once told you or you finally learned for yourself: every professional was once an amateur, and every master started as a beginner.
The only real difference between you and them is that they started. Maybe they started scared. Maybe they started bad. But they started.
So here's my question for you: What are you waiting for?
The person you want to become is on the other side of beginning. The skills you want to have are on the other side of being terrible at them first. The life you want to live is on the other side of the discomfort of being new.
Every expert was once a beginner who refused to quit. Your turn starts now.