Fear

Self Doubt

My biggest obstacle was not a lack of ability, but self-imposed self-doubt.

I was obsessing over an inner voice that said, "If only I had more knowledge, or a little more time, then I could do this."

The voice then listed ten reasons why I couldn't do it, versus ten reasons why I could.

Feeling a lack of confidence and risk is no reason not to proceed. In fact, risk is a reason to forge ahead.

If I wanted to grow my skills, advance my career, and widen my impact, I had to embrace risk and the discomfort that came with it. Taking risks meant that I was bound to learn and grow.

 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙪𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙪𝙥𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨, 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙙.

“What was interesting in all of these cases was the peculiar process that led to these inventions: generally, the inventors had a chance encounter with the available technology; then the idea would come to them that this technology could be used for other purposes; and finally they would try out different prototypes until the right one fell into place.

What allows for this process is the willingness of the inventor to look at everyday things in a different light and to imagine new uses for them. For people who are 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴, the familiarity of an old application hypnotizes them into not seeing its other possibilities.

What it all really comes down to is the 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 of a 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱
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something that is often enough to separate a successful inventor or entrepreneur from the rest of the crowd.”
- Paul Graham

⚛︎⚛︎⚛︎

Self-belief is immensely powerful. The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion.

Cultivate this early. As you get more data points that your judgment is good and you can consistently deliver results, trust yourself more.

If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s hard to let yourself have contrarian ideas about the future. But this is where most value gets created.