From Success-Thinking to Failure-Acceptance

The shift isn't about believing you'll succeed before you start. It's about accepting you'll probably fail and starting anyway.

Here's the paradox: failing is closer to success than fantasizing about success ever will be. But that doesn't make it easier. The messy middle is brutal. There will be struggles, doubt, and worst of all — no guarantee it'll work out. No one's watching. No one's forcing you to push through those dark moments. You don't know if you'll succeed, when it might happen, or whether you should quit and cut your losses or push forward despite the sunk cost.

The only thing guaranteed? Mistakes. The more you make, the faster you make them, the faster you learn. Each mistake is a piece of the puzzle. You'll figure it out by doing, not by thinking.

The real trap today is social media's "overnight success" illusion. What you see: the winner. What you don't see: 8,569 failed attempts, years of invisible work, friends and family who doubted them, and countless others who tried and didn't make it through. Survivorship bias at its finest — only the winners get celebrated, making the path look easier than it actually is.

Start anyway. Fail faster. Figure it out along the way.