Beginner's Mind

Shoshin

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For the Ryukyuan king, see Shō Shin.

Shoshin (初心) is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind". It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, 

and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner

in that subject would. 

Anders Ericsson's "10,000-Hour Rule" of expertise was popularized by the Malcolm Gladwell 

book "outliers".  For anyone who doesn't know, 

it describes the enormous amount of time

greatness requires, a key to success in any 

field.  When I joined the training program at 

Knight Securities in 1998, I had assumptions. 

Trading wasn't something people did past 40. 

Trading wasn't something people wanted to do 
past 35.  You didn't have to have greatness per     

Se, but if you worked hard enough, showed up
enough and were reasonably smart, you were

assuredly going to miss out on financial 
worry in your late 30s.  Nearly 20,000 hours
in my former profession didn't quite deliver
greatness for me, but it did allow me to
have the trip of a lifetime earlier this year, and
come home completely pumped up and perhaps crazy enough to dive completely head first into an entirely 

new industry and have the audacity to  working exclusively on researching and building an 
entirely new business on the web.  When I take classes with or read blogs about former MIT computer 
science grads who joke about their first three startup  failures it's easy to feel Lane Meyer did in
the 80s movie, "Better Off Dead", readying himself to ski K2 and running into the guy in crutches 
who said,  "After the Olympics,  everything looks so damned easy." at the ski shop.

When I study yoga my teachers speak often about Beginner Mind.  To borrow from Namaste 

Yoga: 

In yoga philosophy there is something called samskaras. These are the habitual patterns that form 

the “well-worn” paths in our lives. We do certain things so many times we don’t even have to think

about them. A less glamorous way of talking aboutit is called being in a rut.   A beginner’s mind is

unencumbered by samskaras because they have not yet formed.

I hardly think that the likelihood of my success in this industry is enhanced by knowing less.  But I 

can also report that when I meet people in this business who are also starting things, there are so

many who believe that they have the right idea for what people want.   I acknowledge that I know

so little about building software and creating something that addresses a crucial need in people's

lives, that I wouldn't waste a second building something until I've tested each of my assumptions

mercilessly.  The path in my life is to free myself from these attitudes and reactions to really create

something useful and beautiful, and that means being extremely open to what people want, how 

they want to use their time, and being  patient and humble when I encounter the answers.

This brings us to the next chapter in the tradembark story.  In the next week or so, I'm going to be 

much more public about testing some of the assumptions we've made.  It's going to take place in a

number of forums and all over my social network sphere.  I look forward to and appreciate your

participation.  

PS- I can't express how amazing it is that people take time to read my blog and keep up on me.  I

am also totally open to comments on feedback in the field below.  What do you think I should 

build???  Do you like hearing about my journey?  Do you want to help?