Why do we sabotage ourselves?

Read time: 2 minutes

Welcome to David Beats Goliath—for the self-made, not the silver-spooned founders.

Dear Founders,

There’s an invisible story many founders carry:

Average equals invisible.
Ordinary equals failure.

So we compensate.

Perfectionism masquerades as ambition.
We tweak the deck again.
We wait to publish.
We delay the launch.
We “strategize” instead of ship.

Because if the first draft isn’t legendary…

…it shouldn’t exist at all.

And so nothing launches.

The Lie Beneath It

No one is exceptional...at least not from the beginning.

Not you.
Not me.
Not the founders we admire.

The most important mindset shift every entrepreneur must make is this:

You are not fixed.

You are not capped.
You are not finished.
You are not defined by your first output.

We must adopt a growth mindset.

The belief:

• I can grow.
• I will overcome.
• I am allowed to be wrong.
• I am allowed to learn in public.

This is easy to say.

It is terrifying to live.

The Moment That Changed Me (2002)

When I was about to launch my first startup in 2002, I had a realization that shook me:

No one was coming to validate me.
No one was going to certify me as “exceptional.”

It had to be willed into existence.

That realization was terrifying...
....YET wildly empowering.

Because if IT doesn’t exist yet
that’s NOT proof you or I are delusional.

It’s proof that we might be early.

Entrepreneurship Is a Boat Ride

The origin of the word entrepreneurship comes from the French entreprendre—to undertake.

But I’ve always loved the imagery of it as riding into the unknown.

You push a fragile boat into dark water.

No map.
No guarantees.
High chance of looking foolish.

You are risking much.

If you wait until you feel exceptional before launching…
You will never leave shore.

Refuse Small Stories

The real danger isn’t being average.

The real danger is living a small story.

A small story says:

• “Don’t publish unless it’s perfect.”
• “Don’t try unless you’ll win.”
• “Don’t risk unless success is guaranteed.”
• “Don’t launch unless you’re ready.”

You will never feel ready.

And that’s the point.

Founders don’t start exceptional.

We become exceptional by refusing to live invisible stories.

We ship.
We embarrass ourselves.
We learn.
We adjust.
We grow.

Over and over.

Here’s the Reframe

You are NOT NOTHING because you are NOT exceptional
(WOW...triple negatives!)

You are early.
And early is powerful.

Early means:

• You can iterate.
• You can evolve.
• You can compound.
• You can surprise yourself.

Most people never become exceptional because they never tolerate being ordinary long enough.