Too Scared to Start
The world can be cruel.
People judge you based on your last “identity”.
Most people don’t do what they truly love. It’s hard to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life by the time you’re 18. After that, you get stuck with a label of your major, job, etc.
It makes it really hard to start or learn something new. If you majored in arts, how can you become an engineer? If you worked in finance, can you become a lawyer?
If you really want something, you just have to start.
Even the top professors in any given field were complete newbies at some point.
Imagine yourself at the starting line with them. If you love something and are eager to learn, you’ll naturally put in time and effort. Over time, that will compound into expertise and mastery.
What’s the worst case scenario?
It’s always helpful to imagine the worst thing that can happen. In most cases, it’s not that bad. If it doesn’t work out, at least you learned something new. You’ll still find a way to live on. Usually it’s the case that the younger you are, the less you have to lose. Try and learn new things!
My girlfriend was working in finance. She hated it. I kept telling her to quit, but she was understandably scared. She took a leap of faith in herself and quit to try studying law. She put in a lot of hours and effort, and got into a great school.
Sure, some people aren’t as lucky. Things can go wrong. But if you want to change something in life, you have to give it a real shot.
Even knowing all of this, it’s still hard. My “background” is in quant trading, but I wanted to learn more about AI and robotics. I had no idea where to start in the beginning, and it was scary. I’m still learning something new everyday, and it’s mostly just excitement now. We’ll see where this goes. There’s nothing to lose.