A few years ago, in my previous startup (ConceptOwl), at one point, our app was practically unusable – it was that slow!
We did not have a proper CTO and no matter how hard the tech team tried, they couldn’t fix the problem.
I then asked my co-founder to learn coding from scratch and fix it. In the next six months, she learned Ruby on Rails and fixed all our tech issues.
Contrast this with this other guy I once met in Mangalore. During the 90’s, he worked in technology with a US company, but gradually, his technology stack got outdated. He then quit, came back to India, and took an admin job unrelated to tech.
When I asked him why he quit, he said, “They kept telling me, ‘You have to upskill and learn new technologies.’ If that was so easy, why don’t they do it and show?”
Clearly, this person believed it was not possible to learn a new technology from scratch so late in your career. On the other hand, my co-founder believed that it was very doable – in fact, she did it in six months flat.
So, whose belief was right – this guy’s or my co-founder’s?
It all depends on what you choose to believe.
If you believe that you can’t learn a new skill, you can’t. If you believe you can, then you can. Our beliefs determine our actions, and our actions determine our destiny.
– Rajan