If you look reallllly closely, you can still see all the dents in the wall.

Dents made from years of pitching softballs to my dad (who was forced to be my catcher). 🥎

My parents have moved homes, yet they STILL crack jokes about all the wild pitches I threw that forever dented that shed.

My retort is always one I heard from my pitching coach:

Speed first. Accuracy second.

She wanted me to learn the foundations of the motion and the mechanics of power before fine-tuning the pitch.

It made being my catcher tough (sorry, Dad), but I did earn a spot as one of the starting pitchers on my high school team.

(Granted, my high school only had 150 kids, and about 75 girls, so the competition wasn’t exactly fierce. But still!!)

You’ve probably already heard the idea that it takes about 10,000 hours to master something, which is a concept from psychologist Anders Ericsson that refers to deliberate practice.

But in Hidden Potential, Adam Grant shared that mastery doesn’t always require rigidity and discipline. When we treat practice like play (by staying curious and having fun) we often get there faster.

The idea is this:

If you aim for perfection without first focusing on getting enough reps, you might actually be working backward.

In business, this applies too.
Speed doesn’t necessarily mean going the fastest.
It means prioritizing trying and failing in order to learn as quickly as possible.

So the more reps you can get in early (especially if you’re having fun with it), the better foundation you’ll have to then focus on accuracy, precision, refinement… ultimately, mastery.

But so many people hate being a beginner.
More accurately, most people hate being seen as a beginner.

We’re afraid of looking dumb (me too👋🏼).
We’re afraid of being rejected (samesie👋🏼).
We’re afraid of people being turned off by the fact that we’re not “there yet” (totally get it).

But the more willing we are to put ourselves out there, fail, learn, and pivot…the faster we’ll actually get to mastery!

I’ve looked dumb (some of these dents are about 20 feet up…). 🤦🏻‍♀️
I’ve been rejected (taken out of the game when I’ve walked too many batters or allowed too many hits). 🤦🏻‍♀️
Not every coach saw value in my skills (after years of playing 1st base and pitcher on my school team, I was sent to left field with my tail between my legs on a summer team).🤦🏻‍♀️

But this fueled more practice, resilience, and motivation to go out there and do better next time.

So if you’re afraid to market yourself because you’ll look dumb, land on deaf ears, or get rejected…just accept that that’s part of the game, baby!

You WILL make dents.
But every dent, or rejection, leads you closer to another strikeout…and to mastery.