The key ideas is: so long as you learn from your mistake and you have a way of gathering criticism so that you can keep improving, you can start at the very bottom and still end up at the very top. If you have no feedback mechanism, no criticism, no measurement that allows you to correct your course, however (or if you ignore all that), it almost doesn't matter how high you start, you'll always end up mediocre at best.
Be unafraid to die, and you will live! Reminds me of "9 out of 10 businesses die":
If you start 10 startups, you have near-certainty of making it (yeah, I know 1-.9^10<1), assuming you learn a lot from each attempt.
What can stop you: giving up OR being unable/unwilling to learn some particular lesson that is crucial. The article is about making yourself vulnerable to learning.
http://inter-sections.net/2007/09/05/it-doesn%E2%80%99t-matt...
The key ideas is: so long as you learn from your mistake and you have a way of gathering criticism so that you can keep improving, you can start at the very bottom and still end up at the very top. If you have no feedback mechanism, no criticism, no measurement that allows you to correct your course, however (or if you ignore all that), it almost doesn't matter how high you start, you'll always end up mediocre at best.