So I just listened to episode 1000 of .NET Rocks. I’ve been listening to this podcast for many years, through biting snow-covered walks in England to the cosseted comfort of an air-conditioned car in Australia when it’s 43C outside.

1000 episodes is an amazing achievement and it got me thinking.

There’s a lot of popular talk at the minute on advancing your career, becoming an outlier, and building a personal brand. The thing is there’s one underlying trait that successful people seem to possess: showing up.

"if the rope breaks nine times, we must splice it together a tenth time"

Fear is a big motivator, for the longest time (like so many other developers I’ve met) fear was present; fear of not knowing everything, fear of looking stupid, fear of not being able to find another job. For the most part I’ve let this fear fly away and one of the ways I think I’ve done this through persistence, thorough showing up.

I think if you take an approach of continuous personal improvement you will. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out into the world, whether this be blogs, user groups, Twitter, or lunchtime “brown bag” sessions presenting to your colleagues where you work.

There are always going to be people who criticize, but there are also always going to be people who say “thanks”.

There’s a Tibetan saying that “if the rope breaks nine times, we must splice it together a tenth time” – this is showing up, even when you feel you have nothing to contribute, are fearful of criticism, or feel like you can’t get anywhere – there are always choices, and showing up is one of them.

As Jim Carey says: “you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love”.

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