My mum pulled a tray of warm croissants out of the hot oven, croissants, one of our favourite treats to eat in our house.“Did you make them?”, I asked as the smell of freshly baked goods filled up the kitchen.
“Yeah,” she replied.
I bit into one, then another, and then maybe another.
“MMMM,” I commented, stuffing my face with croissants.
They tasted really good, as if they had come straight from a bakery. I am fortunate enough to have a mum who is an amazing cook, nobody was ever left unsatisfied after eating my mum’s cooking. As a child, I would from time to time try my hand at cooking or baking. I knew croissants wouldn’t be the easiest thing to execute, but given that my mum succeeded it gave me the confidence to believe I could.
So off I went, I grabbed our 1000 Recipes cookbook and found the page for croissants, I followed the recipe and proceeded to make my first batch, I was excited, I knew I would probably get it right on the first try, I was certain they were going to turn out good, if not great. I put the tray full of uncooked pastry into the oven, and waited eagerly, nearby to see the results. I checked the time, they were finally ready, as I took them out, I was upset at first, they didn’t turn out great, they were quite small in size as they hadn’t risen that much, but they were my first try so I didn’t feel too disappointed. I received some advice from my mum on how to improve and tried again.
I had had a trial run, my second attempt was going to be the one, I could feel it, I applied the advice my mum had given me and resumed trying to win the battle against croissants. I prepared the dough and was ready for all my hard work to pay off. The timer went off, I took them out and to my surprise I was once again not satisfied, they weren’t the worst but they still weren’t right, however I knew I wasn’t far off. Once more I had my mum’s help to guide me through the process, “you need to fold the dough more,” she would advise me, “you should let it rise a bit longer,” she insisted, I listened, I absorbed all the information and tried again.
The tray sat on top of the counter ready for its contents to be examined, they smelled so good, I tried to look past the layer of hot steam, these were definitely going to be the winner, it wasn’t too long before my smile disappeared, I was gutted, unfortunately I had failed yet again, they just weren’t right, they weren’t the same as the crescent shaped pastries I was so familiar to, they were nothing like my mum’s, but I hadn’t given up, I knew I was getting close, I don’t think I ever would have.
I don’t remember if it was until after my third or fourth attempt when my mum finally sat me down and told me. She looked me in the eyes with an apologetic look on her face.
“I have something to tell you,” She said.
“What is it?” I questioned with a confused look on my face.
“So, you know those croissants I made?”
“Yeah” I answered, still confused.
“Yeah I actually didn’t make them, I bought them from the supermarket,” she explained.
I looked at her in shock.
“I had just put them in the oven to warm them up,” she continued.
You can imagine how devastated I was, but at the same time I felt relieved. Devastated because I had no reason to believe I could succeed anymore, relieved because I felt as though I wasn’t failing, seeing as my mum hadn’t even tried.
It’s funny, sometimes I wish she hadn’t told me, sometimes I wish she let me believe her lie because I know if I stuck to it, right now I would probably be a pro at making croissants, imagine that? Being able to make croissants. But why did I stop? And why didn’t I see it as something attainable until I thought it was? I knew that it was possible to make croissants, so why didn’t I just make them?
There is so much we believe we can accomplish thanks to the countless pioneers before us, be it being a successful entrepreneur, or travelling the world, or flying to the moon, or beating a 100m record, or even making croissants, they showed us how to make the impossible possible, but we shouldn’t always be waiting for a new creation, or a new invention, or a new record to be broken, we should strive to be first, we should believe we are able regardless of whether or not it has been done before.
I’ve learned that belief is a powerful thing, but belief is not something that can just be found, it is something you need to generate within yourself. You need to create your own belief, without it you won’t succeed, you need to believe in yourself, you need to believe in your goals, in your dreams, in what you are doing, whatever it may be, believe in it enough and you will succeed.

And that my friends is how you make croissants.