[paulz_]

Boy I really hesitate to offer advice on this. Just know it's coming from someone who is in the midst of starting a not yet successful startup. So maybe this is terrible advice, or I may be the wrong person to give it. Seems like enough of a disclaimer.

I found myself experiencing feelings similar to what you're describing. Something that helped was not focusing on the future end state so much.

I remember one time seeing this interview with Bezos where they were congratulating him on Amazon's stock price at that time. And he was talking about how he tries to encourage Amazon employees to think in terms of inputs to Amazon, not outputs (like stock price).

I really like that idea of focusing on doing the hard work at hand and not worrying too much about what comes out on the other side.

Obviously this can go too far, you still need some vision to aim at. But I find that not only with this experience, but with learning other things too there can be sort of a stall where it feels like nothing is happening. You keep showing up every day but it feels like there are no results.

There is value in having a sort of stubbornness in the face of that. Focusing in on doing the work of the day and finding joy in it, rather than worrying about a payoff that may or may not ever come.

I think this is one of the reasons that startups work better when it's a topic you're sort of obsessed with. It helps to be able to work on something that you don't even care all that much if it leads to anything. Just a weird and interesting thread you keep pulling on.

[tasteful_rogue]

Hit me like a ton of bricks.

I've noticed within myself some long-ingrained fear of failure, and this seems to manifest as dreading my work for fear of a suboptimal "outcome" (I don't know how to solve a problem, a project takes too long, rejection/setbacks on the funding front).

Any tips or strategies that have helped you shift your mindset to being more about "inputs" other than diligent repetition/journaling?

[paulz_]

One thing that helped was acknowledging in my own mind that the worst could happen. I could fail completely. I could burn through all my money. I could let everyone down. I could embarrass myself. Whatever the worst was, I considered that could happen. Frankly it's likely to happen. Startups are hard as hell.

Then I considered I could just go back to working a normal job. Pays well, I get all my social status back. All these icky feelings go away. And I genuinely considered this. There is nothing wrong with that life. I loved those jobs!

What I found though, was that even in the face of all that risk it seemed a lot more interesting to try to do my own project.

But with those considerations I approached it a lot different. The daily risks feel like the activity more than whatever this may or may not look like in 10 years. I think this is better for the company too because it's possible to constrain yourself if you're convinced you already know what the end is like. Better to follow your own curiosity.

That's the theory anyway. Again, this is advice coming from someone who feels extremely unqualified to give it haha.

There is also a book by Carrol Dweck called 'Mindset' that speaks pretty directly to what you're asking about. You can get a pretty good idea of the concepts by googling fixed mindset vs growth mindset. The book itself has a couple slow parts but is pretty good overall.

[tasteful_rogue]

Awesome, kind of like the "negative visualization" practices the Stoics recommended, haha.

I feel like this would be a good approach for me to work on my aversion to failure.