Validity and the Journeyer

“It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think you are not.”

– Denis Waitley

Imposter syndrome defeats more entrepreneurs than competition. No success arrives without setbacks. Every leap forward is preceded by pratfalls, private and public. 

This truth is not what we see on social media. It’s not what we feel when others triumph and sit for interviews on stages, podcasts, and TV. We wonder why we are so far behind. We question our worthiness. As if we don’t get enough of that from our competitors, dissatisfied clients, and even, at times, our own team. Doubt gets delivered with dump trucks. Praise is given in spoonfuls. 

This doubt is all a part of our journey. And the worst thing we can do is give too much credence to that Doubting Thomas in our heads. In 1910 in Paris, Teddy Roosevelt delivered his celebrated “Man in the Arena” speech. While most trot this out to silence the naysayers and haters, it’s just as useful in muzzling our inner skeptics. Here is its most famous passage:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” –  Theodore Roosevelt

Validity comes not from the accomplishment itself, but rather from the real commitment to the journey. It takes guts to step onto the path of entrepreneurship, into Roosevelt’s arena. It’s time to give yourself full credit for striving, for trying, for battling forward. 

One question to ponder in your thinking time: Who believed in you before you believed in you?

Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan