It's Good To Be An Amateur

Everyone is in over their head these days. Yet there are many people who don't think so, but they are simply wrong. No one has lived before and none of us have experienced dying. No one has been a parent next year, yet. No one knows tomorrow's problems. All we know for sure is that the future keeps coming at us.

We are in over our heads. Many people are paralyzed by this fact, and yet so many deny it is true, but they are over their heads, nonetheless.

The Titanic was built by experts, some of whom said, "Even God could not sink this ship." Those who built and sailed that doomed ship did not think that could possibly be in any danger, because there was nothing on earth that could sink the ship. Noah's ark, on the other hand, was built by amateurs, all of whom knew the reality was that any ship made by man could sink because it was not immune to the forces of nature.

To proclaim yourself an expert breeds overconfidence and destruction. To realize you are an amateur promotes an internal realization of the necessity for adaptability. Amateurs have enough "newness" not to say, "It's never been done this way before." They don't allow themselves to be limited by what the experts "know."

Strangely, those who are really experts proclaim themselves amateurs, and sometimes tragically, those who are really amateurs proclaim themselves experts.

Paradoxically, real expertise often has nothing to do with self-proclamation. Idiots can be haughty and geniuses can be humble.

The point is that to be happy and succussful you must constantly increase your knowledge, experience, and judgment while becoming more humble in the knowledge of what there is left to know.

Unfortunately, many people will never understand this. We have all seen teenagers truly bored who have know idea what they want to do with their future. They are experts at life without having ever experienced it. Likewise, we have all seen octogenarians truly excited about the next book they are about to read or the next place they plan to visit.

Go figure!

So here's to the amateurs among us! Those who know they are in over their heads and enthusiastically adapt to each new change or challenge, and can't wait for the next one. Many of them are experts, but think of themselves as amateurs. That's why they are experts.