There is a common misconception that in order to become an expert you need to be perceived as the best.
If you had to be the best to be an expert there would only be one expert at:
- Basketball (Jordan? Bird? Magic?)
- Piano (Mozart? Beethoven? Chopin?)
- Running a Tech Company (Gates? Jobs? Dell?)
- Painting (Monet? Raphel? Da Vinci?)
- Stand-Up Comedy (Carlin? Williams? Pryor?)
- Chess (Fischer? Kasporov? Deep Blue?)
I dare you to try and pick the best out of those categories and say that the others aren’t experts.
Which brings me to my next point.
There Are Already Experts at Everything
Whatever you are trying to get better at, there are most likely already people that are perceived as experts at it. (Notice I said perceived, and not just “are”. Tricking people into thinking you are an expert is a very common ploy and not something that I’d advocate doing.)
Instead of viewing this fact as a reason not to pursue becoming better at something, use it as a reason to push harder. You can see what kind of potential opportunities you will have if you get to the top, have someone to look up to, and study the mistakes they’ve already made.
Don’t strive to be the best. Strive to always be getting better and you’ll eventually become the best.
You Don’t Have to Wait for Permission
Like it says on our manifesto:
“You don’t have to wait for permission, and you don’t need anyone else to grant you status.”
You grant yourself permission. You give yourself status.
Quit waiting and start doing.
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Caleb, Charlotte’s Web has a quote, “Good enough, pig, good enough.” Good enough is pretty good, whether one gets recognized or not.
Short and very true, thanks for the post, Caleb!
So many times people tell me that they can’t do something because they have no expertise in the area. They use this as an excuse to not to do anything at all. That’s easy.
If only I could help them understand that expertise comes from trying and failing, and trying again and again until they are good at it.
But they don’t listen, just complain… Is this situation familiar to anyone else? Is there a good approach handling it?
And I would add you don’t have to work on becoming an expert anyway. The goal is expert enough, right?
Thanks for the nudge, Caleb.
Love this post!!!
And always working to be better than oneself was yesterday, so important both for our own well-being and that of our businesses.
Happy New Year!
Thanks for this post!!!
Great article and great blog. I noticed a while back on Think Traffic that you had started it, sorry it took so long to get over here.
The message is important. For every person I see who fails at something because s/he didn’t know enough, I see a hundred who failed because they never started, “thinking” they didn’t know enough.
I’m not sure on your comment policy here, but I know this first-time comment will probably be moderated anyway, so feel free to delete this if you feel the need, but it’s a little piece of my writing I enjoy. Much more importantly, it’s a life lesson that changed my life for the better
Self Perception — or Self Deception.