“Here comes the undeserving batsman,” I heard someone mutter as I walked toward the crease. A few laughs followed.
I don’t remember who said it. But I remember how quickly I believed it.
I used to play for my school’s district-level cricket team. I was even the vice-captain, despite being the youngest player. I hadn’t trained under a professional coach like most of the others, and that difference stayed with me.
The louder doubt wasn’t theirs. It was mine.
I often wondered whether I truly deserved my place. Maybe others were better. Maybe I had only looked good on the selection day. Maybe it was luck.
So I practiced hard. Harder than most players on the team.
One day, while announcing the batting order, the coach asked me to open the innings over players I believed were stronger than me. Opening the innings meant trust.
I glanced at my teammates, expecting resistance. There was none.
Over weeks of practice, they had seen the effort and the results. I scored better than most players, often winning practice matches single-handedly. But the limitation I carried inside remained.
And when I walked onto the field, that belief quietly shaped my game.
No one else questioned my abilities. Only I did.
***
Years later, when I started my first business, the same pattern returned.
I didn’t have an MBA. No one in my family had a business background. Without those credentials, people thought business was a risky move for me.
At conferences, I often stayed quiet even when I disagreed with the speakers.
Maybe somewhere inside, I believed I wasn’t qualified enough. The limitation had changed shape. But it was still there.
Then COVID arrived.
Overnight, businesses had to adapt. Offline models collapsed. Urgency replaced comfort.
There was no time to question qualifications. There was only time to respond.
For the first time, I didn’t think about what I lacked.
I acted.
I moved my business online quickly. I focused on customer satisfaction. I adjusted without hesitation.
Within a year, many business owners I had met at conferences had shut down. Some had been far more qualified than I was. Some had MBAs from top business schools. Others came from business families.
Their businesses collapsed. Mine grew.
Profits increased. Customer satisfaction improved. We became one of the top-performing franchisees in the company.
And that’s when I realized something.
The world had never limited me.
In cricket, the coach believed in me. In business, customers believed in me. During COVID, the market rewarded adaptation.
The only limitation that existed was the one I carried inside.
Since then, whenever doubt appears, I pause and ask myself: What limitation am I carrying right now?
And is it even real?
Because sometimes the ceiling we blame on the world is only a belief, we chose to hold.
***
Quiet Clarity: The limiting voice against you is usually your own. Believe it and you shrink to fit it.
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