Starting as a beginner (and closing the gap)
A few years ago, I read a quote from Ira Glass (This American Life) about the difficulty of getting good at anything when starting as a beginner. I wrote it down on medium and it stuck with me ever since then.
When starting as a beginner, you get a lot of resistance. First, you tell yourself your creative output is not good and you have no idea how will it be ever great like the people you look up to. Second, people you know doubt how what you're doing now will evolve into something great. And you feel like an imposter.
“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me … is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit.
Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.”
I've lived through a few cycles of trying to « close the gap » now. First, as a snowboarder and wannabe filmmaker, second as a musician an wannabe record maker, third as a marketing professional and wannabe strategist, fourth as a first time investor/board member and now, again, as an entrepreneur.
Each time, it takes years. Each time, starting as a beginner feels weird. Each time, people around you are skeptical. Each time, you doubt yourself. But it's alright, you're a train passing by and people are standing still. Don't bother, just mind « closing that gap ».
Now, I love meeting people who have clearly not « closed that gap ».
“There’s always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who’ll trip you up and laugh
When you fall”