Self-doubt, schmelf trout — a pep talk

This is a stupid idea. Why did I quit my job? Why did my friends say they liked this idea? I bet they were just humoring me. What if nobody likes it? I have no clue what I am doing. I should ask for my old job back.

If you are even a month into starting your own business I am going to hazard a guess that at least one of these thoughts has popped into your mind. You’re not alone. Self-doubt is natural even for the most confident of people, your business is essentially a highly visible, physical manifestation of your beliefs and thoughts. So yes, it is scary exposing yourself in that way, the same way it would be scary if you were to share your love letters (Snapchats nowadays) with the world.

But this is not a good reason to stop or slow down. Acknowledge, accept and then ignore it. You came up with an idea that you talked to a lot of people about in advance, you planned everything out and you tested it, your friends said they liked it (they would) but you also asked lots of other people what their thoughts were and maybe did some market research.

Maybe when you release it nobody does like it, but then you have that knowledge and you can move onto the next idea, iterate your idea or pivot. You will never know for certain how people will respond to an idea before you try it out but you will never find out if you don’t build it, what have you got to lose?

And of course you have no clue what you are doing, even famous CEO’s make dumb moves, so why should you have all the answers on day 1 of your journey? That wouldn’t really be fair would it?

Now put that tub of Ben and Jerrys back in the freezer and do something productive.

Where to next? What about this:

Discipline — be your own task master

Or check out a previous post:

Sometimes it might not be the fastest way but the most valuable

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