A Professional Amateur

I am a professional amateur. A dilettante, if you like.

I am not an outstanding programmer or web developer.
My Chinese is far from perfect.
I am not a marketing guru.
I am not the greatest capoeirista or an acrobat.

And yet, I genuinely enjoy the level I have reached in all of these areas.
They give me pleasure. Some of them even bring income.

I don’t need to be at the very top to feel competent, curious, and alive in what I do.

Brian Eno never positioned himself as a virtuoso musician. In fact, he openly described himself as someone who couldn’t really play in the traditional sense. What he had instead was taste, curiosity, and a willingness to experiment. That “amateur” position allowed him to invent new genres, shape the sound of entire bands, and turn curiosity into a lifelong career.

Tim Ferriss was never the best athlete, the best businessman, or the deepest expert in any single field. His strength came from entering many domains, learning just enough to get real results, and then sharing what worked. Being “good enough” in many areas turned out to be more valuable than chasing mastery in one.

Both stories point to the same idea: you don’t need to win the field to play the game.

Conclusion #1

You don’t have to be a 100% professional to love a field or to earn from it.

Being “good enough” can already be meaningful, useful, and sustainable.

Conclusion #2

Don’t stop yourself just because you think you’ll never reach the highest level.
Or because you believe it’s “too late.”

Do the opposite. Learn. Try more things. Try them repeatedly.
Life is surprisingly quick at telling you what you don’t need.

What remains is usually worth keeping.