Pulling your pants down! Such a terrible thing?

I'm getting busy trying to finish some of the unfinished stuff in my life.
I've come to this sudden burst of resolve because:

A. A terrible life long belief in a nebulous future over which I have little control.
B. A good talk with my brother who, at the age of 60 realized he might just be the grown up in the room. Like him I always looked for someone who would tell me what to do.
Fuck it! I'm working with people 20 years or more younger than me. I'll be the wise man.
C. A health regimen that has me feeling like the man I was 30 years ago when "there was no try, only do!" Piss & Vinegar full of, I am.
D. Like a lot of folks, I've been an armchair critic. It's far easier to be a sack of unfulfilled potential than to be embarrassed.

This leads me to the pants thing.

 “Anyone who subjects himself to publishing might as well walk down Madison Avenue with his pants down."  J.D Salinger

A family much concerned with embarrassment.
I was confused that even after his early success, he was embarrassed. Embarrassed!

So as I tackle the projects that were moldering in the remainder bin of neglect, I thought,

"I'm a blue collar slob with terrible education, poor grammar and spelling."
 And this brings me to the second half of this post's title.
"Such a bad thing?"
I had a friend Len Corman. He was an actor and also my dentist! The best dentist ever.
A very distinguished actor and gentleman.
When I first started acting I struggled with embarrassment.
I would toss and turn in bed for days after an audition. Thinking how awful I was. What could they think of me? Stuff like that.
I was telling Len how embarrassing it was for me and he gave me the best advice I've ever gotten,
"Such a terrible thing?"
He was right of course. Now I love to audition and when I have the job, I'm the grown up at work.

The same is true of the new creative projects I am now going to jump into.
I'm confident of the initial inspiration.
I now have the will.

I'm sure I'll get some tuts as I walk down the street with my earnest but half thought out ideas in torn and past their prime Fruit of the Looms. ~  "such a terrible thing?"