My buddy told me his cheap telescope is better than my $400 one because he knows the sky.
We were looking at my blurry photo of the Orion Nebula from last night and he just said, 'I can find that with my $50 scope in my backyard, you just need to look up more.'
Used to think gear was everything honestly. Then I spent a night under a bortle 4 sky with just a pair of 10x50s and saw the Milky Way with my own eyes for the first time. Totally changed how I think about what matters most in this hobby.