“A little.”

“Then you’ll be good at it.”

Her certainty made me smile, but I was learning that confidence was not a promise of perfection.

It meant being willing to ask when I didn’t know, to repair mistakes, and to value my own labor.

The following week I received a phone call from an older acquaintance who had heard about the inheritance.

She congratulated me, then asked whether I would still bother working with all that money.