I think this has been true in my case, for years I wanted to make a significant contribution to an open source project but I did not have the skills to do so in

I think this has been true in my case, for years I wanted to make a significant contribution to an open source project but I did not have the skills to do so in a timely manor, I had to focus on billable work. Now ~ 8 years after I started programming I feel more confident that I can jump into a new library and fix or add what I need without the risk of spending more time modifying library feature than was required to add the business logic to my app. This seems like it would be a critical realization in the path of a dev from junior to senior.