[PW] Inexperienced people in occupations who then excel at them

[Edith Bailes]

Two examples from the Revolutionary War immeidately spring to mind:

Benedict Arnold, military genius

Henry Knox, artillery officer

Neither had had any military experience at all until the war. Until he went
sour, Arnold was the best general we had. Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller,
applied what he had read, and among other things, moved something like 59
pieces of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga across the Berkshires and along
the entire length of Massachusetts to Dorchester Heights.

Edie in Maine