Always An Amateur

Welcome to the uppercase life where we are willing to fail if it means we can succeed. I'm your host, Joseph Brewster.

What do you think of when I say the word amateur? There are a lot of connotations around the word. And actually, if you look up quotes about the word amateur, most of them are not positive. Most of them are critical.
And usually amateur is contrasted against professional. But if you're anything like me, you may have a little bit of a perfectionist in you. And we really want to be professional. We really want to be perfect. We really want to do everything right. Sometimes, though, it really is better to just be an amateur. An amateur is generally someone we associate with being new on the journey.
And let's be honest, if you're going to take any journey at all, you're going to have to be new on it in the beginning. And if you're not willing to be new on a journey, you will never go anywhere you haven't already been. And that's, to me, a really intimidating thought. I want to go new places, but in order to do that, I have to be humble and recognize that I can't start off at the top.
I'm not beginning the game at level ten, so I have to start as an amateur. And sometimes it's hard to stomach that, especially if you've been doing this very long. Maybe you've had some prestige, maybe you've had some success, and you feel like, Man, I somehow have hit the brakes. I'm going backwards. I'm now in some new endeavor and I just feel behind the eight ball all the time.
And like, I'm no longer the biggest fish in the pond. Let me just tell you that it is a joy if you can embrace the idea of being in that phase of being amateur, because in order to keep growing in your life, you're going to have to be an amateur over and over again. So I want to suggest this to you.
Don't be afraid of the term amateur. Be willing and ready to fail fast, because let's let's be honest. As an amateur, you don't know everything. There's a lot of things you have no experience in, and you're going to have to just jump out there and fail at them. Otherwise, you're not going to know what you're missing. And if you were afraid to fail to look then in front of other people, then you will never try new things.
So be willing to fail fast. And you know what? Share your work even when you're new with it. Maybe you're trying something you've never done and you're looking at it and you think this didn't come out the way that I wanted better. Okay. Share it with someone anyway. Show it to the world. Because, look, here's the big deception in my own mind is that I won't tell anyone I'm doing this until I can be really good at this, until I am a consummate professional, and then I'll show it to the world.
But the truth is, most people quit long before that time, so they start and stop something. Essentially, they abort their own dream in a manner of speaking, because they're not willing to share it yet. They don't want to involve other people because they just feel like they're not good enough. That's a right. Don't worry about not being good enough.
Just share it. Fail fast. Share it. Don't worry about how good you are. There's always someone better than you. That might sound motivational. But look, I don't care who you are. That is always going to be true. Someone is better than you. Somewhere that should not be a barrier to you sharing your work. And also, here's one that gets me a tribute.
Always a tribute. And here's what I mean by that. Sometimes we feel like we're on some journey to to have a revolutionary idea or something completely unique that no one has ever had before. And I think we're all a little afraid that someone's going to discover us. They're going to find out that actually we took an idea from this other person over here, this other, you know, art or this other business.
And then we did a spinoff of that idea and made our own. But the truth is, everyone is doing that. There's no possible way you're going to make anything in the world unless you are standing on the shoulders of someone else. Right. There's already been incredible. People come before us. So a tribute. If you were inspired by somebody and you are making some sort of derivative work or you're making something which is a direct inspiration, just go ahead and say it.
Don't be afraid. Somebody will find out and say, oh, look, I found this other thing on the Internet that looks like yours just pointed out in advance, say, look, this other amazing person made this thing and it inspired me to do my thing. And here's my thing. That does not make you any less of a creative person. If you were trying to come up with your own thing from scratch, look, good luck to you.
You're probably never going to put anything out. And once you do, you're going to be crushed. When you find out somebody somewhere else in the world already had your idea. That's a right. Just a tribute when you have inspiration. And then here's the last thing. Don't take it personal. Oh, man, this one's really hard for me. But when you're doing a thing, sometimes it can feel so tied up in your identity that you can't fail in your own head like, I can't fail because if I'm not good at this skill, then I'm not good.
Like, as a human being, I'm just not good. And that is a terrible way to look at your endeavors. If you're constantly tying your identity into your endeavors, then you'll feel like you're failing the world every time. You can't pull off something amazing, and that's just not true. It's not true. And you know what? It's okay if people don't always like it.
That needs to happen. That's going to help sharpen your skills. Criticism is going to come. That's it's fine. Don't make it too personal. Let your work stand on its own. And you know, when somebody is like, well, you know, you're not as good as so-and-so. That's okay. Maybe they're telling the truth. And you know what? I don't want to be.
Actually, when I think about it, think of all the pressure of being at the very top of the pile. First of all, statistically, I'm never going to make it that high, most likely. And second of all, that's a really difficult position to hold. And so where I'm at as an amateur is a sacred spot that I'm in right now.
It's cool. It's unique to be an amateur. One day, my pressure the pressure is going to be higher, right? You're going to be a professional and then you're going to have to operate at a different level. But it's okay for right now, you're doing something new, you're doing something cool. You're failing. You're screwing it up. You don't know what you're doing.
It's fine. Be an amateur. Embrace being an amateur. And even throughout my professional life, as somebody who works with a lot of other people who do what I do, I am totally okay with taking that turn because I think there's a certain amount of humility and saying, look, I've got a long way to go with mastering this crap, whatever craft it is, I'm not the master of any of it.
So am I willing to be the amateur? Yes, I am. I love being the amateur. And eventually you'll find ways to be more professional. So go out, try new things. Don't be afraid to screw them up and to look a little silly. That is the first step in a long journey to being great.

Thanks for joining us on the show today. I'd love to hear your feedback, your comments or your questions, and you can email me at TheUppercaseLife@gmail.com. And if you enjoyed this, consider leaving us a good rating so other people can find it as well. And until next time, live like it matters.