I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how experience changes you, and not always in the ways people talk about. Everyone tells you wisdom is valuable, and it is, but there’s also something dangerous about becoming too experienced at what you do. You stop making the same mistakes, which sounds great, but sometimes those mistakes were attached to boldness, excitement, and movement.
When I started out, I had no clue what I was doing. Absolutely none. I just believed I could figure it out, and honestly, that belief carried me farther than actual knowledge did for a long time.
I look at old photos like this one and laugh, because this guy thought he was going to change the world from a hotel room floor with a laptop and a bad haircut. But the funny thing is, he actually might have been closer to the right mindset than I am now.
Back then, failure didn’t feel real yet. I hadn’t lost enough, screwed up enough, or been humbled enough to calculate every possible outcome before making a move. I would say yes to things immediately. Canadian Tire was one of those moments. I walked into opportunities with way more confidence than qualifications. I wasn’t sitting there thinking about reputation, long-term strategy, or whether I could perfectly execute every detail. I was just excited to work. Excited to build. Excited to create something.
And we did, years of great ideas that are still running today.
And the weird thing is, even though I needed money more back then than I do now, it somehow wasn’t about the money.
Of course I wanted to make money. I needed to, my family was growing, we wanted an house, my hair dye budget was also very important to me. But honestly I wasn’t thinking about image, positioning, followers, perception, or whether something looked successful from the outside. I was riding the wave. I loved the work itself. I loved the chaos of figuring things out. I loved the momentum of building something from nothing, even if I had no clue where it was going.
Now I’m older, more experienced, and honestly…more careful.
With ventures like Bevs & Burns and other projects, I find myself calculating every step. I want things done properly. I want the branding right, the timing right, the strategy right, the investment right. I know how businesses fail now, which means I can see problems before they happen. That sounds like wisdom, but sometimes it becomes hesitation disguised as professionalism.
That’s the part I’ve been wrestling with.
Because when you become “professional,” you also become safer. You stop making loud statements before they’re proven. You stop trying things publicly unless you know they’ll work. You stop risking looking stupid. You stop moving with instinct and start moving with caution.
The problem is, some of the best things I ever did came from just jumping before I fully knew what I was doing.
Ironically, I probably trust myself less now than I did when I knew nothing.
And maybe the answer isn’t becoming reckless again. Maybe it’s just remembering that the younger version of me wasn’t powerful because he knew everything. He was powerful because he wasn’t afraid to move.
So I think that’s where I’m heading again.
I’m going to do things quicker. With excitement again. With joy again. I’m going to put things out into the world without needing them to pass every marketing test first. Without over-calculating every possible outcome. Some ideas might fail. Some might be ridiculous. Some might completely miss.
But at least I’ll be moving again.
I think too many of us spend our lives thinking outside the box, when really we should be so far outside the box that we’re standing in the weeds somewhere, building something nobody saw coming.
”Wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!”
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