A Smart Bear · Jason Cohen
articleprincipleEnough with the "expert" guilt
22 February 2010Profit
Source excerpt
About A Smart BearTired of being told you need "10,000 hours" before you can call yourself an "expert," and maybe become a "success?" Maybe you don't.
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Apollo layer
What a founder can learn
Founder takeaway
Don’t treat an arbitrary threshold of experience as permission to start. Narrow the problem you aim to solve, test whether you can create a useful outcome, and let evidence—not an “expert” label—determine your credibility.
Why it matters
Waiting to feel fully qualified can delay customer learning and turn healthy humility into avoidance. Founders build confidence more reliably through focused experiments, real feedback, and demonstrated results.
Relevant guides
Put it to work
What is one narrowly defined customer problem you can help solve this week, and what observable result would show that your current expertise is sufficient?
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