I don’t know about you, but my world changes daily, and you can only be an expert on things that don’t change. Perhaps you can be an expert at what is or was – but not what will be. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men, Misery, and many more) wrote the immortal line:
“Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out, it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”
Look at your work and career as if you were always a beginner. What can you learn? What’s changing? Experience matters, but it’s not about becoming an expert as much as positioning yourself for what’s coming next. Never rest on your laurels.
Whatever I know how to do, I’ve already done. Therefore I must always do what I do not know how to do.
– Eduardo Chillida
This article on the always a beginner mentality originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
