3 reasons why "Stupider People Have Done It" (but YOU haven't)... [🐝U]

I just finished reading an advance copy of Stupider People Have Done It by Jay Schwedelson.

Halfway through the book I actually laughed out loud because…
apparently I’ve been accidentally living the title for the past 6 months.

Here's what's been going on.

I'm developing raw land in Alberta.
I don’t even have the option to connect to utilities so it’s 100% off-grid, like it or not.

No formal experience or training.
But I grew up on job sites… my dad & other family members built our houses, so I've spent my childhood watching things get built.

I know enough to recognize when something's done right in building (& fixing houses)

Which makes what's been happening here even harder to sit with.

The driveway is fully paid for.
1/2 done.
& the contractor who guaranteed the work now wants more $$ to fix the thing he already screwed up.

The pole barn was supposed to take 2 weeks.
That was 6 months ago.
Still can't use it.

The water management company spent over 3 hours on my property.
Staked out options.
Walked me through the flooding issues.
Gave me a verbal 5-figure estimate.

Then never sent the quote.

I found out yesterday what it would actually cost to buy the equipment & do it myself.
Less than what they verbally quoted me.

I’m writing this from a tiny trailer with sketchy electrical, cold floors, & a heater that seems to quit whenever Alberta decides to remind me it’s Alberta.

& after talking to over a dozen people about a cabin & office space.
Still in the trailer.
Still no solid plan on where I’m spending next winter.

Some nights I’ve genuinely sat here thinking:
“Who the heck do I think I am trying to pull this off?”

& now Jay’s book’s basically smacking in the face …
Stupider people than me have done this.

I know.
Because I got receipts … lots of them.

So I'm sitting there doing the math on equipment costs...

Here's what the book is actually about

Jay Schwedelson's grandpa said those 6 words to him when he was sitting with his head in his hands …
→ convinced he wasn't smart enough,
→ didn't have the right background,
→ couldn't do the thing in front of him.

& that 1 sentence stopped his spiral.

Because it's 100% true.
Somewhere out there, someone less qualified than you is already doing the exact thing you're convinced you can't.

Not smarter.
Not more prepared.
Not more ready.

Just doing it.

So it got me thinking about all the reasons we freeze when it’s our turn to build something.

& specifically, where’s the voice that stops us actually coming from?

Because here's what most of us miss.

You weren't born thinking this way

Nobody comes out of the womb thinking:
“I should probably play small just in case I fail.”

That software didn’t come pre-installed.
Somebody uploaded it.

You heard it.
From someone.
Maybe someone who meant well
→ a parent trying to protect you from disappointment,
→ a teacher trying to manage 30 kids who didn’t have room for your kind of ambition,
→ a friend who’s uncomfortable of your dreaming out loud because it reminds them of their own unlived version.

The point is that we heard it so many times that it stopped sounding like their voice.
It started sounding like ours.

& now it’s stuck on auto-pilot in our head.

The people who gave you those fears might not even be in your life anymore…
but somehow their soundtrack still keeps playing in your head.
over & over … & over again

So here are 3 of the things stupider people never told themselves
& that you probably can’t stop hearing.

& because while you're here wanting building a business...
every 1 of those reasons is running on repeat.

1. "I don't have the right background"

I don't have land-development experience.

What I have is a lifetime of watching my dad MacGyver things together & standing on job sites as a kid, handing tools to my dad, uncle, cousin, Godfather … absorbing how construction actually goes together.

That’s not “no experience.”
That’s decades of exposure most people never got.

The contractors who've been taking my money these past 6 months don't have some special background I'm missing.
Not really as much as I’ve been giving them credit for.

Mostly?
They just had equipment, confidence, & the willingness to say:
“Yeah, we can do that.”

Because technically they are more of an expert than me

& here's the thing about building a business …

Most of the people sitting on the sidelines thinking they don't have the right background are already way more prepared than they realize.

Whether it's years of industry knowledge, real relationships, hard-won instincts about what your people actually need.

The marketing part?
That's learnable.
The knowing your people part? That took you decades.

My father could hear things in music most people completely missed.

He never took 1 lesson, couldn’t read sheet music, & definitely wasn’t a sound engineer with just a grad-school education

Where did you first hear that your background wasn't enough?

2. "I need more experience first"

Think about every job you've ever started.

Did you walk in knowing everything?
Did you have every answer before your first day?
Did you never make a mistake, never need someone to explain something, never have a moment where you thought okay... I'm figuring this out as I go?

Of course not.
Nobody does.

You had some skills.
Some relevant experience.
Then you showed up
& learned the rest by doing it.

That's how every job works.
That's how every job has always worked.

So why do we hold building a business to a completely different standard?

Why do we suddenly require a level of certainty we've never demanded of anything else?

Nobody wakes up experienced.
Experience shows up after enough awkward reps, bad decisions, expensive mistakes, & moments where you think:
‘well… guess we’re doing this now.’

You don't get good at something by waiting until you're ready to do it well.
You get good at it by doing it... badly at first... then less badly... then well enough that someone pays you for it.

I don’t care how many YouTube videos or books you read on riding a bike…
At some point you have to stop researching, put your butt in the seat, start pedaling & wobble into a few bushes.

The voice that says not yet, not ready, not enough reps …
that voice was installed to keep you safe.

It's doing its job.
But it’s not doing you any favours.

3. "Maybe I'm just not the kind of person this works out for"

This is the 1 underneath all the others.

The quietest.
The most stubborn.
The 1 that doesn't announce itself … it just silently sneaks in & shows up as avoidance, procrastination ...

As “after this settles down, I'll really focus.”

I know this 1 all too well.

I'm building something in conditions that would make most people quit.
No reliable heat (or power).
Faulty electrical in a 50 sq ft tiny trailer.
Contractors who took the money & didn't finish the work.
Still in a trailer 6 months past when I expected to be settled.

& some nights the voice gets loud.

Maybe I’m just not the kind of person life works out for.

But here's what I've learned sitting with that voice long enough to actually look at it:

I wasn’t born with it.
It’s not in my DNA.

It came from watching.
From listening.
From absorbing the energy of people who'd already made peace with a smaller version of things & didn't realize they were quietly teaching me to do the same.

That's not blame.
Most of them were doing their best.

But their ceiling & crab mentality doesn't have to be mine.
& it definitely shouldn’t be yours either.

The voice that says people like me don't get to have this.

That voice sounds like you now…
but it didn’t start with you.

& you need to give it back.

So what do you actually do with this?

You don't fight the voice.
Fighting just makes it louder.

You notice it.
You name it.
You ask 1 question:

Whose voice is this, really?

Not to blame anyone.
Just to remember it’s not yours
Which means you can update it.

Because somewhere out there,
someone with less experience than you,
less background than you,
less certainty than you...

IS building the thing.

They're out there trying.
Learning.
& sometimes falling down

But always picking themselves up & going again.

I've said it a million times: there's no failure, only feedback.

Life doesn’t hand out feedback to people waiting safely on the sidelines.

The people making progress aren’t the ones who feel ready.
They’re the ones willing to collect reps before confidence shows up.

Because somewhere out there, less qualified than you is already building the thing.

Not because they’re special.
They just started.

“Stupider People Than You Have Done It.”
Which means you already have everything you need …
except the reps your fear doesn’t want you to get.

Now go get them.

& the book because all proceeds go to charity to
kick cancer’s butt

Make it a great “action-filled” week!
EG

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