Belief Comes Before Ability: Have Faith

This quote by David Senra has stuck with me since I heard it. “Belief Comes Before Ability”. I wish I had heard this when I was younger. 

The counter to this point is what most of us grow up hearing. It’s why so many of us are discouraged before we try anything. They tell us “Get training, get credentials, get a degree before you can do anything.” While this absolutely makes sense if you are in a career like medicine, engineering or architecture or other industries that don’t change that much. 

It’s completely different in most businesses, particularly on the media and technology side of things. In fact this is where the innovation happens and why many times these innovations and startups come from younger people or outsiders. 

Sometimes youth, inexperience and naivety is a benefit. It allows them to look at problems with a whole new angle. It makes them question how things work. And inexperience and lack of understanding how challenging something is can be a major boon. It’s like that funny meme that went around that said “We did this not because it was easy but because we thought it would be easy!”

So mindset is critical. As Henry Ford said:“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” We end up becoming our own worst enemy. This negative mindset is something people really struggle with, especially from commonwealth countries like the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. 

Have a big goal, scrap the negative self talk, screen out the naysayers around you and get to work. Everyone who has done anything interesting started from scratch. Through making the inevitable mistakes, learning from them, doing the work consistently over a long period of time, you will eventually get good. Too many people quit too early. It all comes down to how badly you want it. 

If you are chasing your interests and curiosity, you are more likely to find something you want to work on. Couple this with real problems that you want to tackle, that the world needs solved and you will eventually stumble onto the work of your life. 

Remember the world rewards you according to the difficulty of the problems you solve. So have some belief in yourself and get to work.