I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

This is something I wish I learned much earlier than I did. It’s a secret your school teachers and college professors don’t want you to know. Quite honestly, a lot of them probably don’t realize it themselves.

Knowing this sooner would have saved me years upon years and thousands upon thousands of dollars that I spent on things I didn’t care about.

The secret is this:

All you need to do to begin your career is to start.

You don’t need any more lectures. You don’t need more debt to get another credential or degree. You don’t need any more tests. You don’t need permission. You don’t even need any experience.

All you need is to start.

One of my good friends once said: Try trying.

Give an honest effort. You will learn along the way.

Want to write a book?

Don’t spend $60,000 on an English degree. Just start writing the book. You’ll correct course along the way. Nobody said it will be perfect. An imperfect reality is better than a perfect fantasy. It’s your book. You are creating it. You imagined it in the first place. It’s only fitting that it is brought into reality on your terms.

Want to start a business?

Start the business. Don’t know how? Find someone who does, and ask them for help. If they say no, find somebody else. There is no shortage of people in the world. Will you mess up? Yes. Will it take a while? Yes. Just like the book, it won’t be perfect. That’s okay. At least it’s real.

Obviously writing a book and starting a business both require a lot of thought, planning and action. There’s much more to it than just starting, and it’s not that easy.

But you don’t need to know all of that right now. It doesn’t matter until you get there. Football players don’t plan out the 4th quarter during the pregame warmups. They focus on the first possession.

Take the first step first. Once you move forward, even if it’s in the wrong direction, you’ll be able to look at your problem from an entirely new spot. Then you’ll know what to do next, plus you’ll have a bit of momentum.

This is called learning. It can be done through creation, and it’s more powerful that way.

Learning isn’t a prerequisite.

It’s so easy to revert to passivism. We have been raised in a classroom and taught to wait until we’re “ready” before we try something. You will never feel ready.You don’t need to learn how to do something before you do it.

The act of trying something is what shows you how to do it.

Stop waiting until you’re ready. Start starting before you’re ready.

In his book The Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss wrote:

““Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”

The truth is, your college professors need you more than you need them. But they don’t want you to know that. They would lose their jobs.

Until then, the problem grows.

It’s up to you to fix it.

Just start.