You Are Or You Aren’t

One of the most impactful pieces of advice I’ve got from somebody is this.

You Are Or You Aren’t.

The story goes like this. I wanted to be in their shoes. I told them that I’m an aspiring developer and was wondering what piece of advice they had for me.

They told me to stop calling myself an “aspiring” something. What do you mean? I said.

You either are or you aren’t, it’s as simple as that. If you play soccer, you’re a soccer player right? If you write code, you’re a developer.

This was quite a realization I had. I was so insecure about being a developer. It was to the point that my job title said I was a developer, but my senior colleagues were so good that I felt like a lingering imposter.

Regardless of your current experience, even if you’ve only written one line of code, you are a developer. Don’t let people act as gatekeepers to how to identify. You don’t need to be an authority to belong.

Identifying as who you want to be in the future is a superpower. It provides you a sense of idealizing who you want to become. Your roadmap becomes point A to point B instead of a fighting chance. You aren’t fighting your insecurity of being something, rather you embrace that something. You are that something. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

If You Do, Then You Are.