fear of failure

Early Work

2 months ago

Fear of making something lame is a major barrier to doing great work, as many ambitious projects start off unimpressive.
To succeed, you must push through the early stage where your work seems unimpressive, even to yourself.
Inexperience leads to harsh judgment of early work; we need to treat new ideas as challenges to our imagination.
Silicon Valley's culture encourages new ideas and has evolved customs that support ambitious projects despite initial lameness.
Self-doubt and skepticism are powerful forces; techniques to overcome them include overestimating importance, overconfidence, and ignorance.
Surrounding yourself with the right colleagues and teachers can help you see the promise in early work.
Focusing on the rate of change rather than current state, and treating work as a sketch or experiment, can reduce discouragement.
Curiosity and learning from failure are effective motivators to push through the lame phase.
Studying histories of great work can help recalibrate your judgment of early efforts, recognizing their true value.