60 Who Do You Think You Are?
will find the path of least resistance, it will pull you onto your perfect
path. That’s exactly what’s happened to me. If you encounter tons of
resistance, pay attention to that resistance – which I would call a “no” –
it’s as good as a “yes” because it tells you as much as a fluid, graceful
entrance into something would. Resistance is just as informative and
valuable. So my advice would be to just try something. Even on a hunch.
In fact, the crazier the better!
For somebody who has an inkling of what they came here to do
and just hasn’t stepped into it, I would say just start where you are. Face
the feeling of inadequacy, face the mystery, face the feeling of being
unqualified, just feel all those things. Face all those fears: I don’t have
any business doing it, I don’t know how to make it happen, I don’t have
the relationships, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the capital, I don’t
have the friends, I don’t have the experience, I don’t have the office, I
don’t have the music equipment, I don’t have the word processor, I don’t
know any publishers in New York, I don’t know any venture capitalists,
I’ve never manufactured a product before, I don’t know how to trademark
my invention.
Take the first tiny step forward. Make a single phone call, take
out a single book from the library, just take a step forward. Anyone from
Donald Trump on down to the ten year old who opened up the lemonade
stand will tell you that they had no idea how it was going to turn out.
They just did the first thing they could think of towards that goal.
Of course, experience serves you. In other words, you do gain
experience over the years, but the only way to get that experience is by
trying it. The first time you open up a lemonade stand you may buy too
many lemons or not get enough ice. But the second time, your estimate
will be closer. The third time you won’t run out of quarters to change
people’s dollars. By the eleventh time you’ll be teaching classes on how
to run the lemonade stand. Donald Trump did the same thing, I am sure.
Even if you began with a billion dollars, you’d still need to learn how to
manage that kind of money, how to build a beautiful building. You’d still
need to learn how to grow a company, how to hire and fire, and how to
manage assets. No matter who you are, you’d still need to learn all of
those things, and all those things come with time and experience. We all
begin with a blank slate or a blank sheet of paper.