Toby Moore: Don’t underestimate yourself, what can be accomplished

“Too many people overestimate what they lack but underestimate what they have – and lose the chance to become a winner.” – J.D. Rockefeller, in a letter to his son

Most of us carry the belief that we’re behind, waiting for something we don’t yet have to make us whole. More time. More money. More credentials. Better connections.

It adds up to a quiet conviction: I’m not enough.

And once that belief takes hold, it convinces you that you don’t have what it takes.

It’s easy to get negative, but remember when that one setback turned out to be a setup? The things you thought disqualified you were actually preparing you? Some instincts only come from the pressure. Some wisdom only comes from failure.

When we underestimate ourselves, that doubt takes root and starts whispering into every effort, every conversation, every decision. Over time, we’re not just waiting for resources.

We’re waiting for permission.

Tennis great Arthur Ashe once said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

And that is probably the blueprint for greatness right there.

Take Luis von Ahn.

He grew up in Guatemala City, where private schools had bulletproof glass and public schools had almost nothing. Inequality wasn’t a theory – it was daily life.

At 8, he was given a computer – a rare luxury in a place where most kids couldn’t afford textbooks. He didn’t have access. But he had curiosity. He didn’t have mentorship. But he had obsession.

He applied to colleges in the U.S. with no connections, no family legacy, no special polish. Just skill, grit and a drive to build things that mattered.

He got into Duke, then Carnegie Mellon. And while others chased Silicon Valley fame, he chased strange questions:

Could millions of people solve tiny online tasks – and unknowingly help humanity?

That question led him to invent CAPTCHA. Then, reCAPTCHA: a tool that used those squiggly login tests to digitize millions of books. Users thought they were logging in. They were actually preserving history.

You weren’t proving you weren’t a robot. You were moonlighting as a librarian, helping digitize old books.

Still, he wasn’t finished. Education, he knew, was broken – and language was the gatekeeper. So he co-founded Duolingo. Investors laughed, but he didn’t wait for their permission. He started with what he had. Where he was.

Today, Duolingo has more than 500 million users learning languages for free.

A company born from a willingness to begin – awkwardly, humbly, and with what was available.

So did Melanie Perkins.

She wasn’t from Silicon Valley. She didn’t have a Rolodex of investors or a fancy MBA. She was a 19-year-old student in Perth, Australia, teaching classmates how to use clunky design programs. She saw a problem and had a simple idea: What if design could be easy?

It would’ve been easy to say, “I don’t have the right background,” or “I don’t know the right people,” or “I don’t have enough money.”

Instead, she started with what she had.

Her first company operated out of her mother’s living room. She was rejected by more than 100 investors. Still, she kept showing up. She believed in the vision – and in her ability to keep learning as she went.

That belief became Canva: a platform now used by more than 100 million people worldwide, valued in the billions, and still growing.

She didn’t wait until everything was in place.

She moved with what was in reach. She didn’t define herself by what was missing.

We tell ourselves we need more. But maybe what we really need is a shift in posture.

The extraordinary rarely starts with abundance.

It starts with motion.

The people we admire most – the builders, the creators, the reformers – began awkwardly, humbly and under-resourced. But they started anyway, with what they had – and the belief that it was enough.

Maybe the real gap isn’t between us and success – it’s between us and belief. Not belief in the system, the timing or the perfect plan.

But the belief that what we have – even if it’s messy, incomplete, or unproven – is enough to begin.

Beginnings don’t start fully equipped.

They start with willingness.

And somewhere between effort and faith, the road rises to meet us.

Maybe it’s already on its way to meet you.

• Toby Moore is a Shaw Local News Network columnist, star of the Emmy-nominated film “A Separate Peace,” and CEO of CubeStream Inc. He can be reached at feedback@shawmedia.com.