Credentials?

Oh, sure, I've got credentials. Okay. Actually, I don't.

Every so often we have dinner with some of The Professor's colleagues, or I get an update from an old friend or I just start comparing myself in my head to accomplished people with all kinds of initials lining up after their names (believe me, I know quite a few) and I get to feeling low.

For many years I have heard about my great potential (what a rotten word when you aren't 16 anymore) and some days that very potential slaps me in the face with a glove and challenges me to a duel that I call in sick to and I end up batting zero.

(loving the mixed metaphors)

But having watched The Professor and many others get PhDs, and MDs and JDs and masters degrees and movie contracts and book deals, and having watched them closely, I know this: every accomplishment takes time. You just chip away at what's in front of you and every day you know a little more. Building something important happens in increments. Being an expert is just a matter of showing up many, many, many times and doing the task at hand.

By George, that sounds like what I do.
 

I just hope that when my kids grow up they will let me frame them and hang them on my wall.