Gatekeepers, they are everywhere. A person or a group of individuals who for some reasons have assumed that they know everything. A set of people who zealously guard the corridors of their hallowed hall of knowledge, and use everything possible to dissuade the rest.

Pick up any profession, and you will find the Gatekeepers. They assume the authority to discourage and demotivate a person trying to learn by sowing seeds of doubt and spewing toxicity. And they are more prominently found in the tech and the creative industry channelising their insecurities by making statements such as :

  • Javascript is not a real programming language;
  • Web Analytics is dead;
  • Only engineers can work in the tech domain;
  • Don’t use a JavaScript framework;
  • Don’t start a sentence with ‘and’

The Gatekeepers have an opinion about every damn thing!The problem with them is that they impact the minds of the vulnerables. Sometimes so deeply that the person, who until now was sincerly working and putting in hours of efforts, gets discouraged and gives up! Or worse starts doubting his abilities. My question is who appoints these Gatekeepers, and who annoints them the right to shut doors on people working their ass off and trying to learn.

So what if my prose is not grammatically correct. So what if my gaming skills are not matching your speed and skills. So what if I don’t have an engineering level degree to accompany my talent. So what! I am stil attempting and learning and will match you!

To all those people I just want to say don’t be a Gatekeeper, if you can’t be a facilitator. Move out! You will be crushed while you are busy defending the gates. The person who is working to get in will try all that is possible. And your narcissism and smirks will only propel the individual to try harder. Remember that while you are today on the other side of the gate once you too were trying to get in and if not for a benign soul who gave you an opportunity you wouldn’t be where you are today.

To all those people who get dissuaded by the Gatekeepers, I just want to say Ignore the Gatekeepers! You have and you will survive! The world needs your talent.