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Why Your Self Doubt is Your Greatest Superpower

Author

Dan Pope
January 26, 2024

Why Your Self Doubt is Your Greatest Superpower

Bbrrhhhhhhhhhghhhhh ---- sshhhhhhhhh. THUD.

Bbrrhhhhhhhhhghhhhh ---- sshhhhhhhhh. THUD.

Bbrrhhhhhhhhhghhhhh ---- sshhhhhhhhh. THUD.

Bbrrhhhhhhhhhghhhhh ---- sshhhhhhhhh. THUD.

I am on a speedboat. Cruising along.

Bbrrhhhhhhhhhghhhhh ---- sshhhhhhhhh. THUD.

Bbrrhhhhhhhhhghhhhh ---- sshhhhhhhhh. THUD.

Sunset Pudding. Mellow-Yellow haze. Soul-Calpol. Sublimely, delicious and deliciously sublime. The sea is a gorgeous Milky silver like a thousands Rolexes smelted into Whipped Cream. Sky is Tangerine Dreams. Bleedin‘ n burstin’ strawberries. Bombastic bursts of Orange and Red and Fire Roaring cosmic Bliiiiissssssssssssssss.

Along the beach are barrels of yappy yanky Americans on Vacay (it’s called a Holiday, Dude). Profiterole-pounding-Pete. Corpulent-Cattywampus-Colin. Over-Weight-in-Under-Armour Aaron.

Buffet of Banal Board shorts avec bored wives - dreaming of affairs with their puckish Costa Rican Surf instructor called “Julian” (pronounced Huuuuuleee-an)

“Ohhh Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul-ee-an, YOU ARE JUST THE BEST!!!!!… Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuulee-an,”

Dunno, if I told you or not?! But, yeah, like, I am travelling...Yeh, it’s, like, totally, REALLY opened my eyes.

My Hostel is bookie AF.

Staying at The Hilton: doesn’t doesn’t even have fucking Nespresso coffee capsules? I was like WTF? Rahhhhhhh- Eye opening shit right there, bro.

I rocked up to this gaff with my Waitrose bag for life. Like a war signal or battle cry or wolf whistle to attract my tribe. Aka other Clueless Home County Middle Class Morons-who-miss-Mummy's-Shepard's-pie-and-Daddy-still-paying-for-their-phone bill.

I know, I know. I know EXACTLY what’s on your mind?… “has he got a tattoo yet?!”

Errrrrr, let me have a think, Computer says: BIG FAT FUCKING YES.

Obvs, it’s my first, so went for something hellaaa-low key “LinkedIn Algorithm in Latin French” … on my gooch. And, YES, OBVS I got a shark tooth nipple piercing chaser to go, too.

Right, enough of me waxing-ad nause about superfluous salacious sanctimonious solipsistic sunset shite.

Been reflecting on a Founders Paradox that I’ve been reflecting on since interviewing hundreds of super successful food and drink founders.

Paradox: Self Doubt produces Self Success

Paradox: Negative Internal Mindset vs. Positive External Results

Most founders I interview have an INTERNAL bias towards restless-negative-critical aka Self Doubt.

BUT…EXTERNALLY this produces calm-positive-clean results aka Self Success.

For example:

FOUNDERS POSITIVE EXTERNAL RESULTS:

  • Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, WholeFoods, listing with 10 skus in there

  • Huge office in Shoreditch

  • Amazing company away days in the Cotswo

  • Employees shouting from the rooftops

  • Huge team full of buccaneering champs from tonnes of brands

FOUNDERS NEGATIVE INTERNAL MINDSET

  • “What are the current problems we need to focus on?”

  • “Fuck me, is this office in Shoreditch too expensive? are the current problems we need to focus on?”

  • “How do we improve the JS rate of sale… are we going to hit the hurdle rate ?”

  • “What needs to be improved in the team… is the new marketing hire hitting their targets??”

The great irony:

  • Ironically, the founders with the biggest EXTERNAL SUCCESS are often INTERNALLY INCREDIBLY FRAGILE.

  • Ironically, the Strong Gene Externally is often Internally Fragile and weak

  • The relentless pursuit of better i.e. growing 1% each day, often requires you to focus on the 1% that’s going wrong.

  • The internal view of what’s going wrong makes the external go right.

The Good News?

This negative-restless-critical superpower is a FUCKING superpower.

People say, don’t be so hard on yourself. Give yourself a break. Don’t work today. Slow down. Relax. Take it easy. I’ve tried. It doesn’t happen. You can’t change your DNA. You’re built this way. That’s why you’re a founder. Embrace it.

Introducing our WONDERFUL agency partner HC Consulting

Harry Clarke and Lili Wiranatha are doing EPIC work with EPIC brands -Holy Moly Dips, The Gut Stuff, Savyll Drinks, REMEO Gelato

  • Struggling to unlock distribution?

  • Sales pitch not landing?

  • Don’t want to hire a full time sales director - but need the advice and guidance?

  • Need a helping handing with account management to keep your beloved listing?

    Please do yourself a favour.

    Reach out to my boi, Harry Clarke, Harry may be able to help!

Deets here:

But the Bad News?

Our negative-internal-mindset whilst INSANE for business and growth. It is fucking AWFUL if it spills your personal life.

It wipes out your ability to:

  • to feel present

  • constantly looking at whats’ going wrong make it hard to see what’s going right

The Medicine?

Highly recommend checking out Greg McKeown’s books Essentialism and Effortless. I am re-reading them out here. They’re incredible.

“If you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack.”

“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

“What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?”

Youtube this week… do ya boi a favour and please subscribe

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