Most of us would be quite familiar with the expression of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’. It was certainly a phrase that I heard my mother say many times when I was little and in some ways, I have taken it to heart.
‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’, really does put into a compact expression the notion that to truly do something or achieve something, you have to give something a go, even though there is absolutely no guarantee that your efforts will be rewarded. You truly must risk failure in order to be successful.
So why are you waiting to start learning to play the piano? Have you not waited enough years to get started? Is this something that you want to keep toying with for several more years, wasting time and feeling uncertain when you could be enjoying playing the piano?
When you finally get to the end of your life, do you want to have the regret of wanting to play the piano, and I mean really wanting to play the piano, or do you want to reflect on your life with peace, knowing that you (amongst other things) have seized or made an opportunity for you to fulfill your dream of learning to play the piano.
There are no guarantees that if you take some piano lessons, you will be playing all the piano music you ever wanted to in a few short weeks or months. You know better than that. How many years have it taken you to become really good at the things your good at? Let’s take the example of gardening. Some people seem to have a real knack when it comes to gardening and others kill off everything they touch. The ones that are good at gardening, they don’t forget to water or fertilize or weed, they remember and diligently work regularly at growing and maintaining and giving the plants the appropriate attention. Good gardeners understand that it takes time, knowledge and patience to make things grow. They also understand that sometimes, despite their best efforts, they are going to have plants die on them.
This is the same as learning to play the piano. It is not going to happen overnight, despite what some advertising campaigns for learn to play the piano websites claim. Some will be naturally more gifted than others, but giftedness or the lack thereof is not a barrier to learning to play the piano. Just like gardening, it is going to take time, effort, patience and knowledge to fulfill your dream. You can be successful but if you don’t even try, you will never get there. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.