From Never Before to Haven’t Yet

It never occurred to me that we would eat such great food at Ruckusmakers. Hands down some of the tastiest healthy food I’ve ever eaten.

It’s even picture worthy. Check it out:

Ruckusmakers delicious food!

What I enjoyed the most about the times we ate was being able to break bread and have unexpected conversations with strangers. We exchanged information about projects, strategies, and experiences.

During one of those food breaks, two guys huddled by me and started asking about my project. I told them all about KiwiJar and the strategy I had leveraged.

They continued on to ask questions about the project. Then some more and some more.

All of a sudden, this guy interrupted me:

Best picture I could find of Garen McMillian at Ruckusmakers – @garenmcmillian or LinkedIn

He interrupted me to say:

“Luis, I think you’re a great guy and all but you’ve said the word ‘never’ about five times now. You need to stop thinking in terms of ‘never before’ and start thinking in terms of ‘haven’t yet’. Don’t undermine your abilities. You’re here and you belong.”

He probably doesn’t know it but those words sunk into me. Deeply too.

Just in case you’re wondering, here are the sentences I used the word “never” in during our conversation:

I never went to college.
I never built a SaaS product before.
I never gathered a community and lead them before.
I never gathered two communities and connected them before.
I never worked in the museum industry before.

I remember the sentences because that’s how much his words sunk into me. It’s a conversation I’ll never forget.

It’s amazing how different those sentences sound when you replace “never” with “haven’t” and “before” with “yet”.

The only exception would be going to college. I’m not referring to my new mentality aspect though. I simply don’t want to go to college. That’s all (I ain’t knockin’ college either).

So back to the moral of the story. It’s a rather simple principle my new friend Garen taught me:

Don’t think in terms of “never before” and start thinking in terms of “haven’t yet”.

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This post is for Day 2 of the #RuckusmakersChallenge. If you went to the Ruckusmakers event, feel free to join us even if you’re starting late. We know you can hang!