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How do you get past self doubt?

Anything related to matters of the mind

NeatStranger

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Okay, so I'm not necessarily talking about self doubt, but more of business idea doubt.


I'm sure that many of you have been there, but what can I do when I get to the point where I think my business idea is shit, and even if i finish it and it provides value to the world; it won't matter and nobody is going to make a purchase from me.


This is where I'm at right now, ready as I always am to throw in the towel because I think my latest business venture is just going to be another massive waste of time and will just go down on my history books as another shitty business that I almost started.

If you have been here and gotten past it, what got you past it? What helped you find the belief in your business?
 
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RazorCut

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Self doubt is understandable and hits us all at some point (and it is self doubt you have).

If you have validated it as well as you can, and have asked friends who have a good business brain what they think and all looks well then push on. Unless you come across a huge caveat why would you logically want to stop now? As long as you aren't betting the house on it then all you have lost is a bit of time and money. Time you can't get back but money is just money (within reason).

So to recap it's totally normal to doubt your baby. It's a stumbling block for many of us and has probably caused more solid business ventures to be shelved than any other reason.

Don't fear failure. Consider it an experiment. If it works, great. If not then there is another experiment opportunity right around the corner.

Keep us posted

I-Never-Lose-Either-I-win-or-I-learn.jpg
 
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NeatStranger

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Self doubt is understandable and hits us all at some point (and it is self doubt you have).

If you have validated it as well as you can, and have asked friends who have a good business brain what they think and all looks well then push on. Unless you come across a huge caveat why would you logically want to stop now? As long as you aren't betting the house on it then all you have lost is a bit of time and money. Time you can't get back but money is just money (within reason).

So to recap it's totally normal to doubt your baby. It's a stumbling block for many of us and has probably caused more solid businesses ventures to be shelved than any other reason.

Don't fear failure. Consider it an experiment. If it works, great. If not then there is another experiment opportunity right around the corner.

Keep us posted

View attachment 23433
Wow, this is exactly what I needed. Thank you for this. I am going to get back to work. I am almost done and if this whole thing ends up a flop at least it will end up a flop because it sucked and not because I gave up.
 

Lex DeVille

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RazorCut

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Wow, this is exactly what I needed. Thank you for this. I am going to get back to work. I am almost done and if this whole thing ends up a flop at least it will end up a flop because it sucked and not because I gave up.

That's the spirit. Proud of you man. :clap::
 

Process

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my latest business venture is just going to be another massive waste of time and will just go down on my history books as another sh*tty business that I almost started.

That's not for you to decide. Some of the "dumbest" ideas have been things people love. Let the market decide. Then, improve from there.

You'll be better off than the couch dwellers of the world as long as you cover your basic expenses and keep moving forward.

Most people I know failed 6 or 7 times before they understood the process of testing ideas and executing.
 

NeatStranger

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That's not for you to decide. Some of the "dumbest" ideas have been things people love. Let the market decide. Then, improve from there.

You'll be better off than the couch dwellers of the world as long as you cover your basic expenses and keep moving forward.

Most people I know failed 6 or 7 times before they understood the process of testing ideas and executing.
I appreciate your feedback. I am pushing through and I have found some new ways to innovate that I think will take my current idea to the next level. I am glad that I kept pushing though to today. I am working fervently and trying not to get distracted!

F*ck you shiny object syndrome!
 
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Mattie

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I think this comes with maturity and experience. I just plan on other people giving me negative feedback since 95% of the population enjoys being a negative critic, naysayer, and don't believe in entrepreneurship. Reviews will have both positive and negative feedback. I believe this forum helped me get over the negative feedback. The beginning of the month, someone from the past stated, "I needed to prove myself." I didn't respond to that comment. I already learned in here, I don't need to prove anything to anyone, but myself. I'm used to Negative Critics. In the end they make you mentally tough. When you don't allow it to trigger you emotionally, and understand it's about their education, their self-limiting beliefs, their perception, their angle, their experience, and you've already proved to them by passing them emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, and already showed by the work you've put in, hours, and moved through the worst obstacles, some people are striving for perfectionism, and it wouldn't matter if you were a billionaire, they don't get the process, how many hours you've put in, all the application, techniques, and methods. I don't think the average person really understand the work Entrepreneurs put in. I don't even respond anymore or react. I listen to them, but it's a waste of time and energy arguing with people. You are better off believing in yourself, staying focused, and use your anger as leverage for your work. Self-doubt only comes when you allow naysayers steal your joy and bring you down to a negative emotional response.
 

NeatStranger

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I think this comes with maturity and experience. I just plan on other people giving me negative feedback since 95% of the population enjoys being a negative critic, naysayer, and don't believe in entrepreneurship. Reviews will have both positive and negative feedback. I believe this forum helped me get over the negative feedback. The beginning of the month, someone from the past stated, "I needed to prove myself." I didn't respond to that comment. I already learned in here, I don't need to prove anything to anyone, but myself. I'm used to Negative Critics. In the end they make you mentally tough. When you don't allow it to trigger you emotionally, and understand it's about their education, their self-limiting beliefs, their perception, their angle, their experience, and you've already proved to them by passing them emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, and already showed by the work you've put in, hours, and moved through the worst obstacles, some people are striving for perfectionism, and it wouldn't matter if you were a billionaire, they don't get the process, how many hours you've put in, all the application, techniques, and methods. I don't think the average person really understand the work Entrepreneurs put in. I don't even respond anymore or react. I listen to them, but it's a waste of time and energy arguing with people. You are better off believing in yourself, staying focused, and use your anger as leverage for your work. Self-doubt only comes when you allow naysayers steal your joy and bring you down to a negative emotional response.
Thank you for your advice here. I will make sure to carry it with me when I get harsh comments on my product!
 

GIlman

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Okay, so I'm not necessarily talking about self doubt, but more of business idea doubt.


I'm sure that many of you have been there, but what can I do when I get to the point where I think my business idea is sh*t, and even if i finish it and it provides value to the world; it won't matter and nobody is going to make a purchase from me.


This is where I'm at right now, ready as I always am to throw in the towel because I think my latest business venture is just going to be another massive waste of time and will just go down on my history books as another sh*tty business that I almost started.

If you have been here and gotten past it, what got you past it? What helped you find the belief in your business?

Your idea may or may not work out, but
starting a business puts you in a position where opportunity can find you better. Starting the business and talking to others about it is an opportunity by itself.

It’s so easy to think of an idea as the business, but an idea starts and is just a product of the business — then you learn, pivot, branch out, and keep moving. Where you end up may be entirely different than where you started.

If you never start you have no where to pivot or branch out from, you can’t succeed with out taking some risks and leaps of faith. Without taking a risk you’ll end up sitting in your kitchen 5 years from now with the same unrealized hopes as today, wondering what if!!

Even if this one product is a bust, you’ll have a real world education in planing, producing, marketing, and people around you will see what your doing.

You say 95% of people are negative naysayers, great, then focus all your time and energy interacting with the 5% that aren’t. If you want to be in the 1% then focus gain your inspiration and listen to the 1%. Who cares what the 95% say or think, you don’t want to be part of then anyway, so of course their opinions and views don’t apply to you.

The more experience you gain, through both success and failures, the more valuable you personally become and others will seek you out and present new and better opportunities.

Start smart and lean. Whenever possible, do things that cost time instead of money early on, because you gain so much experience by doing and you are probably short on money and rich in time anyways right now.

Good luck with your venture.
 
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Johnny boy

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I think every entrepreneur starts out thinking it will be easy, imagining success, starting and then getting discouraged and quitting, trying again with a better attitude, quitting because they thought it would only be a little harder, and so on a few times.

Until they accept their worst fears and realize it actually takes 100% of your soul, 100% of your brainpower, 100% of your will, as long as it takes, over and over again, until it finally works. It takes becoming an entirely new person without many of the same traits you used to possess as a normal person. Either that or you wash right out with everyone else and continue along the cycle of quitting when things get hard like everyone else.

I'm optimistic and always think I'm going to win. Every time I didn't, it would hurt, but I would just move forward. I can't help but be an entrepreneur. I can't breathe being a worker for someone else. I remember staying in the library after school just reading about options trading, detailing cars before baseball practice in the summer and trying to start some B-S apparel brand. It's just what I do with my time and how I think. I can't help it. Every thing I thought would succeed failed. I still can't just go be an employee. My ships were burnt for me and I didn't have a choice. It's just who I am. Each new thing I do I work harder and harder, spend more and more of my time on it, wait longer and longer for serious results, and use more and more skills I learn each time. I'm either going to die or win and that's all there is. No wife, no kids, no payments, no free time. How could I have those things and simultaneously say I'm "trying my best"? I don't even want those things that much. I never knew how to start a real business until I did it. I never knew how to hire people and pay L&I and all that crap until I did it. I never knew how to sell until I did it. I never knew how to build websites until I did it. You learn by doing. It's easy to be scared of the work it takes until you realize what it will transform you into.

Your business probably is shit, honestly. Odds are the next business you start after this one fails will be shit too. Just the stats...

Do you have the guts to ignore that, dedicate your soul to it and deal with the harsh realities of making a successful business? Well then you'll probably succeed. Just the stats...

You shouldn't want to succeed so quickly. It won't mean anything. It'll be too easy. It won't test you. Anyone would be able to do it. Everyone wants to be rich. Wouldn't it be nice to look yourself in the mirror and know you've got more heart than anyone else? That everyone wants what you got, but because they're weak, they can't have it? That's such a nice feeling.

When you realize the hard work is the gift, you have no fear of failure. Your energy will skyrocket. You'll watch others drop out and lose "hope" and you'll laugh. The only hope they had was hoping it would be easy.

I don't "believe" in my business. It's just "get busy livin or get busy dyin". What else are you going to do? Be some chump taking orders? Not me. And that's not something I'm going to try. That's just the facts. If you and me are playing chicken and the person who turns away has to go be a normal employee somewhere, I'm smashing into you before that happens.
 

someone0815

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I'm optimistic and always think I'm going to win. Every time I didn't, it would hurt, but I would just move forward. I can't help but be an entrepreneur. I can't breathe being a worker for someone else. I remember staying in the library after school just reading about options trading, detailing cars before baseball practice in the summer and trying to start some B-S apparel brand. It's just what I do with my time and how I think. I can't help it. Every thing I thought would succeed failed. I still can't just go be an employee. My ships were burnt for me and I didn't have a choice. It's just who I am. Each new thing I do I work harder and harder, spend more and more of my time on it, wait longer and longer for serious results, and use more and more skills I learn each time. I'm either going to die or win and that's all there is. No wife, no kids, no payments, no free time. How could I have those things and simultaneously say I'm "trying my best"? I don't even want those things that much. I never knew how to start a real business until I did it. I never knew how to hire people and pay L&I and all that crap until I did it. I never knew how to sell until I did it. I never knew how to build websites until I did it. You learn by doing. It's easy to be scared of the work it takes until you realize what it will transform you into.

That's exactly how i want to see myself. But its hard. Letting go of this insurance called career.

But i'd still like to add don't just blindly do things and expect it to work. Research. Research a lot. For example here in Germany there's a simple saying "(unknowingness) ignorance wont save from punishment". You simply can't just go and open your business and do what you want. This is one of the great challenges here in Germany (probably in every other first-world country too). Research (The kind of that requires a lawyer) is hard work even before the real work. The bureaucracy is unimaginably annoying.
 

Johnny boy

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That's exactly how i want to see myself. But its hard. Letting go of this insurance called career.

But i'd still like to add don't just blindly do things and expect it to work. Research. Research a lot. For example here in Germany there's a simple saying "(unknowingness) ignorance wont save from punishment". You simply can't just go and open your business and do what you want. This is one of the great challenges here in Germany (probably in every other first-world country too). Research (The kind of that requires a lawyer) is hard work even before the real work. The bureaucracy is unimaginably annoying.

What bureaucracy? To run a business? It's someone handing you money for something you provided.

Hard? Hard is sitting at a desk while your life gets stolen from you in exchange for $X/hr.
 
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NeatStranger

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What bureaucracy? To run a business? It's someone handing you money for something you provided.

Hard? Hard is sitting at a desk while your life gets stolen from you in exchange for $X/hr.
I completely agree. Hard is knowing that you can build anything and will work your F*cking a$$ of to get what you want, but being stuck behind a desk 8 hours a day thinking about all the better things you could be doing for yourself with your time.
 

Johnny boy

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I completely agree. Hard is knowing that you can build anything and will work your f*cking a$$ of to get what you want, but being stuck behind a desk 8 hours a day thinking about all the better things you could be doing for yourself with your time.

You're not stuck unless you put some glue on your a$$
 

ShamanKing

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By actually reaching the goals you set. Could be as little as you will throw away 1 thing in your house that doesn't bring you joy anymore, losing weight or stop consuming junk food. By reaching your goals you will gain self confidence and know you can trust yourself.
 
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