That kind of person

Is it just me, or do other people too prefer being taught by someone who once was bad at the subject at hand?

Let me explain. I would not want someone who looks like The Rock to be my fitness trainer. I don’t want painting classes from my art hero Tai-Shan Schierenberg or business advice from Tony Robbins. Too intimidating, first of all. I’d be too scared to ask stupid questions.

I also have this prejudice that, in order to be this great, these icons must have been born being great at their job. They don’t seem to know the struggles a normal person has to overcome to be good at something. I realize this thought process exists entirely in my head and is based on nothing.

My point is: I prefer learning from someone who has been where I am right now. Someone who had to learn to be proud of their art. Someone who’s been terrible at fitness, awkward at selling. Another prejudice, I know, but it feels like someone like that understands where my head’s at, and builds upon my reality to help me grow.

Showing people how to eat in a healthy way is very easy. There’s millions of books, websites, coaches, apps that do that. The same goes for learning how to paint, sell art, get fit, rich, famous, smart,… You name it, it’s out there.

To me, the ones that stand out are the ones with the story. ‘I know what it is to be frustrated because your art isn’t at the level you want it to be.’, ‘I was a sugar junkie.’, ‘I was afraid to charge money for my paintings.’ These are the voices that I tend to listen to. Especially if they admit that they still mess up, make mistakes, doubt themselves regularly.

I don’t want heroes to look up to. I want real people. The ones that are willing to fail, and tell me all about it, inspiring me in the process. I guess that’s also the kind of person I want to be.