Dear Younger Fred… here is a photo right before you became a dad...
spoiler alert...you will be fine.
nobody knows what they're doing at the beginning…
You'll spend the early parts of your life assuming everyone else has it figured out.
Your classmates… your colleagues… your managers… even your friends.
You'll look around and convince yourself that you're the only one improvising.
The only one doubting.
The only one overwhelmed.
The only one learning on the fly.
But here's the first truth you'll discover:
At the beginning… everyone is guessing.
Some just hide it better.
Some talk louder.
Some move faster.
Some look more confident on the outside than they feel on the inside.
This becomes painfully obvious when you become an advisor in your early 20s.
Clients will walk into your office twice your age… sometimes three times your age…
with stories, careers, and life experience that make you feel like a kid at the adult table.
They'll talk about corporate mergers, taxes, divorce settlements, family trusts, business restructures, pensions, asset classes, and inheritance issues you've never even heard of.
And you'll sit there thinking:
"How am I supposed to know all of this?"
Inside, you'll feel like a fraud — like at any moment someone will see through you.
But on the outside, you'll nod politely… quietly praying you don't say something stupid.
You'll still remember that feeling…
underneath the suit, you were sweating through your shirt…
trying to keep your credibility intact…
hoping they didn't notice how nervous you were.
And here's the lesson those moments will eventually teach you:
There was no universe where you were supposed to know everything.
Expertise only comes from exposure.
Competence only comes from conversations.
And confidence only comes from doing it scared.
You'll learn that the only way to grow is to sit in rooms where you're not the most experienced person.
You'll learn that asking questions isn't embarrassing — it's how professionals learn.
And you'll learn that being "in it" is the journey… not a sign you're unqualified.
Because here's the second truth:
Most people are building the plane while flying it.
Careers.
Businesses.
Relationships.
Parenthood.
No one gets a manual.
We're all learning in real time.
And the people you admire — the ones you assume always knew — will eventually admit they were figuring it out too.
That's when you stop feeling behind.
Because there is no "behind."
There's just beginning.
Progress isn't about certainty.
Progress is about movement.
Move, Fred.
You'll learn more in motion than you ever will from planning.
Baaaaam — that's it for today.
See you next Thursday.
Stay curious,
Fred
