The other day I was out with some friends. At some point in the night, a few of their other friends, whom I’d never met before, joined us. After introductions, we got into the typical “What do you do?”

At this point, I explained that I teach people how to code and build their own web applications, “You know, like Facebook, or Pinterest.”

And then I got the all-too-common response:

“Oh. I’m not smart enough for that.” ::awkward laugh::

And this upset me, as it does every. single. time.

Why? Because most of the time it’s simply not true! It’s a cop-out. A (lame) excuse.

What often looks like “smart,” or “successful,” is really just a combination of a bit of interest and a lot of persistence.