New Beginnings Quote by David Leslie

There’s a quietly radical confidence in that “I don’t think,” a softener that actually does the opposite: it pre-empts the expected pity and refuses the premise that starting from zero is automatically a handicap. The line is engineered for a world that treats legacy, connections, and head starts as the default. By calling it “not so much of a disadvantage,” David Leslie isn’t performing bootstraps bravado; he’s doing something subtler and, frankly, smarter: lowering the emotional temperature around risk.

The phrasing matters. “So much” is a strategic hedge, not a retreat. It grants that starting from scratch costs you time, resources, credibility - all the obvious stuff - while insisting those costs aren’t decisive. That’s a worldview built around adaptability: if you’re new, you can move faster, change direction without sunk-cost grief, and build systems that actually fit the present instead of inheriting outdated ones. “Setting up” hints at enterprise more than survival, suggesting an origin story in business, a creative project, or a rebuild after collapse.

The subtext is also social. People who begin “from scratch” are often forced into gratitude narratives or cautionary tales. Leslie rejects both. He frames the blank slate as optionality, not shame - a refusal to be measured only against people who started with scaffolding already in place. In an era obsessed with “founder journeys” and reinvention, that modest sentence lands as a small act of narrative control: I’m not behind; I’m unburdened.