Chapter 57

Everyone starts out as incompetent and an amateur. It flabbergasts me that this young generation thinks that they are already at the top of their skill set, that their work or professional game has no growth left in it at all. My 20 something year old son-in-law is a case in point. He feels like he should running * Corporation, not working for them as an engineer. While he is amazing, nobody is that amazing. Everyone starts out as incompetent and an amateur. It takes a lifetime of practice for most of us to reach our expertise.

The exception to this rule is you are in the field of sports or physical expertise, then the advantages of youth and strength mean that your peak has to occur earlier, because there are few professional athletes beyond the age of 35, (unless you are playing golf or some such non-contact sport). But professional athletes are the tiniest fraction of the general population. Most of us are weekend warriors at best, and purely spectators at worse when it comes to sports. 

For the vast majority of us, it takes decades to polish our skills and abilities and move out of the incompetent and amateur categories. I am 58 years old and am learning more than ever, year after year. There is no ceiling on learning and progress. Having stated all of this, I still would prefer to take the enthusiasm and energy of youth along with it’s incompetence, and tackle a huge world-changing project, than to take on 10 experts my age. There would far more production and far less posturing from the non-experts.