It's just recently that my startup, Zlappo, reached a certain revenue milestone -- specifically, I hit my first $7k day ever.
But all I felt was fear, doubt, and even endless anxiety that this new group of users/customers won't like my product, will find endless fault with it, that it's not good enough for their needs, etc.
I was doing better than ever, but I was also more worried and fearful than ever.
I couldn't sleep well because I was expecting an inbox full of angry new customers complaining or something.
That didn't happen -- on the contrary, I had quite a few positive emails gushing over my product.
This article speaks to me and reminds me to keep things in perspective and basically calm my nerves.
Congrats on your success. Fear is a hack. Your imposter syndrome and self-doubt over the product helped you push harder to create a better product.
It worked. Happy customers are the ultimate validation, right?
“I was doing better than ever, but I was also more worried and fearful than ever”
This is super common. I spent most of my career managing artists in the music industry.
Over 6 decades, 64% of all artists who featured on the Billboard Top 100 were one hit wonders.
Some of the hits were just lucky, for others… the market moved on. But for most it's loss aversion bias.
The fear of loss is greater than the gain.
Artists start playing it safe, they stop taking the creative risks that made them successful in the first place. They get in their heads and overthink everything.
That hasn’t happened for you but it's something we should all be careful with.
This article is very relatable and well-written.
It's just recently that my startup, Zlappo, reached a certain revenue milestone -- specifically, I hit my first $7k day ever.
But all I felt was fear, doubt, and even endless anxiety that this new group of users/customers won't like my product, will find endless fault with it, that it's not good enough for their needs, etc.
I was doing better than ever, but I was also more worried and fearful than ever.
I couldn't sleep well because I was expecting an inbox full of angry new customers complaining or something.
That didn't happen -- on the contrary, I had quite a few positive emails gushing over my product.
This article speaks to me and reminds me to keep things in perspective and basically calm my nerves.
Glad it helped, man.
Congrats on your success. Fear is a hack. Your imposter syndrome and self-doubt over the product helped you push harder to create a better product.
It worked. Happy customers are the ultimate validation, right?
“I was doing better than ever, but I was also more worried and fearful than ever”
This is super common. I spent most of my career managing artists in the music industry.
Over 6 decades, 64% of all artists who featured on the Billboard Top 100 were one hit wonders.
Some of the hits were just lucky, for others… the market moved on. But for most it's loss aversion bias.
The fear of loss is greater than the gain.
Artists start playing it safe, they stop taking the creative risks that made them successful in the first place. They get in their heads and overthink everything.
That hasn’t happened for you but it's something we should all be careful with.
Never thought of it that way. Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure :)