The Principle of Continuous Improvement. 

Be a beginner. Be bad. Be better. Be the best.

Thomas Edison found 10,000 ways the lightbulb would not work. Twelve publishers rejected J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone” before it was accepted. Michael Jordan was kicked off his high School basketball team.

These outliers are the cliched examples of the principle of continuous improvement—starting imperfectly and committing to consistent practice and improvement over time will lead to significant progress and eventual mastery.

Knowing that if I do something long enough, I will get good at it helps me love the future. It keeps me optimistic and pushes me through the bad days.  

Is the goal in life to get really good at something? I know plenty of people who never “master a skill.” Like inventing, writing, or sports. Why is that? 

I get the sports thing. Physical genetics plays a huge role, and training must begin before age ten to stand a chance against other twenty-year-olds when the time comes. For me, at forty-four years of age, it is nearly impossible to make it into the LA Lakers’ starting lineup with no prior basketball experience. But writing doesn’t take physical abilities. Neither does inventing or entrepreneurship. 

So why don’t I know any masters? I don’t even know people who are at least making money with their craft. It’s probably because of the middle class. We get so involved with our jobs, families, and debt that we don’t dedicate the time to learning.

But even if we decide to get really good at something, how do we decide what to spend our time on? Does there need to be a financial reward? Yes, it helps. The three people in the above example all pursued extremely financially rewarding endeavors. Of course, there was always the chance they wouldn’t make it.

This is where I insert a quote from Steve Martin, “be so good they can’t ignore you.” Being so good will inevitably lead to financial rewards as long as the world wants what we make. 

I want to be good at stuff for no reason other than knowing I can. It keeps my future bright and full of possibilities.