Your potential is unlimited
Inertia — Nº190
Our limitations aren’t carved in stone or bound by the world around us—they’re mere lines drawn in the sand by hesitant hands. And we can pull the tide over it at any time.
I learned this lesson through parallel journeys where writing, self-expression, and pursuing financial freedom unveiled the revelation that I want to see more of this world—and I can. Now, I’m doing my best to weave this philosophy in and live through it.
Like morning fog lifting from our London skyline, our possibilities become more transparent with each small victory. The trouble is, most people walk straight past these victories, blind to their significance. I grew up in a family where my mother climbed several rungs of life’s ladder to earn a better life for us—in the time before my hippocampus started to work and memorise my life—I still regarded saving money as a game for someone else; a privilege reserved for those who inherited wisdom or the map through the monetary maze and had more than enough in their backpack. But in 2019, after starting my ‘new life’, I first learned that the mathematics of compound growth never discriminate. Whether you believe in it or not, it works magic. One grain of rice multiplied the same way turns into millions over time.
It works its patient magic, widening the gulf between those who start and those who delay—a chasm deeper than mere wealth, for it cuts straight through to your mindset.
Writing earned me my first digital dollar. I remember that night with almost crystalline clarity. It was like watching a seed you plant finally break through the soil. It changed so much. I then watched that single dollar turn into two, five, then I reached a hundred dollars by my second article, and suddenly the abstract became tangible. What once were daydreams on crowded commutes suddenly unfurled into a real-world roadmap. You feel the addiction to action going like embers catching the wind, and the life you never believed in begins to recalculate your route.
It isn’t just about money; it’s about witnessing your metamorphosis. Proving to yourself that small, consistent actions are your wins. There is no secret formula; it’s as simple as that.
It’s always tempting to dismiss success stories as products of privilege, but certain cynics overlook that history has shown us otherwise. Consider Jim Carrey sleeping in a van, Shania Twain and childhood poverty, Bob Marley rising from Trenchtown’s sewer depths, or Trevor Noah navigating Africa’s apartheid shadows. Closer to home, my older brother’s stories of his early years were a testament to how determination and drive can overcome even the most challenging starting points.
I entered adulthood wearing limitations like an ill-fitted suit. It felt like I was reading from a pre-written script in mundane ink that said: a soul-numbing 9-to-5, an uninspiring career that would never raise my pulse, and mediocrity masquerading as contentment. A future I accepted not from desire but from a poverty of imagination. I couldn’t imagine an alternative. However, the same principle that governs compound interest worked the same way on my ambitions; I fixated on consistently writing well, drawing to the idea of “writing beautifully” and loving the work as an investment that silently builds wealth.
You and your possibilities are the explorers. Destiny isn’t a star controlling your fate—it’s a garden needing your cultivation techniques. Sit down and systematically explore all that you love. And do this because, often, no one else will tell you to. Try them all, refusing to dismiss any options based on preconceived limitations. Each hour spent thinking and understanding yourself is like adding a dollar to an investment account. Your returns won’t be immediate, but they will be inevitable.
Success follows a formula as old as time: skin in the game and clocking the hours. Elevating your platform, expanding your understanding, and strengthening your conviction. This universal formula works regardless of where you start. Circumstances may determine your beginning, but they need not dictate your end.
Potential isn’t about perfect beginnings or unwavering beliefs from the day you could walk; it’s about forming a system where your beliefs and capabilities grow together, like two vines supporting the other in a cyclic relationship towards expansion. Your only limiting factor today is the time you’re willing to invest into persistence and your persistence to keep playing when the wind blows cold against you.