The Doubt of Making Something Good

You sit down.

You have the piano in front of you. It’s your first lesson. The piano teacher pulls out a sheet of music.

You look at it. It is in another language. It has 5 lines going horizontally repeated with a small space. There are small vertical lines crisscrossing with black and white dots. You can see small ‘b’s on the left side of the paper. Four Four.

What the heck does this mean?

The teacher explains and plays Middle C. The tone is warm and sharp. It resonates in and out of your ears. She asks you to play Middle C.

You think, “What’s the big deal? I can make that same warm sound as the teacher.”

Wrong.

The same note sounds like a hammer slammed onto the keys. Why does Middle C have more than one sound coming out from your fingers?

You realize that you’re going to suck. Badly.

Definitely not talented.

Eh?

The Facts and Illusions about Chobos and Newbies

When we start anything in life, we are certainly going to suck. It’s a virtual shoe-in.

Barely anyone succeeds on their first shot. It is by luck if the first shot does any good.

So get over it. Any new work isn’t going to look good. Not your second, third, fourth, or fifth.

Yet we shouldn’t acknowledge how crappy we are. We work at it again and again. We improve. We get better hopefully with the next attempt.

We got to remember that the beginning is the start of something bigger.

A Baby’s Multiple Failures

Look at the baby that can only smile and charm the pants off of his parents and the people around. That’s probably the only natural thing (other than crying, blinking, peeing and pooing) the baby can do.

But the baby is growing. The baby wants to do more.

The baby manages to move the arms and legs. The baby learns to flip onto the side. Then the belly. Then the back.

The baby’s arms and legs get stronger with action. The baby can lift her body weight. The baby makes her first attempts to crawl. After many attempts, the baby manages to crawl pretty quickly.

Zip. Zip. Zip.

The baby tries to stand. But not before falling and being caught by daddy or mommy several times.

The baby stands. The baby tries to take one step forward and falls. Many times. But the baby keeps trying and the first step is taken (maybe with some help from mommy). Then a few steps more, here and there.

Before her first birthday, the baby is walking, celebrated by the tens of people invited to her party.

And it required was numerous attempts and fails.

Was the baby discouraged by mounting number of failures? Hardly. If anything, daddy and mommy cheered her on, along with big sister and brother.

Create and Produce

First creations are rarely great. But the fact that the idea turned into a creation is a feat in itself.

So we got to create, whatever is coming from our minds. We got to grab the ideas that are coming from the universe and bring them into our plane of existence.

Faith requires us to believe that what we create is meaningful and worthwhile. While it may not look great at first, the creation could lead into something better.

Henry Ford didn’t start with the Ford Model T. Before he created the first affordable automobile, he had the Ford Model A.

So for you, I say this: Create. Evaluate. Improve. Create.