Episode 77: The Entrepreneurship Struggle: Unspoken Hardships he didn’t know How to Reveal

As a first-time entrepreneur, Ethan struggled to recognize his own self-worth and would tie it to the success of his company’s revenue. He speaks about how self-doubt played a role, where in the past he would think that others can persevere and take the leap of faith, but not him, leaving him to stick to predefined ideas of what he thought other people wanted him to be. At the time, the internal dialogue he entertained is that whatever he struggled with is what he just had to endure. Any mistake that he encountered tampered with his self-worth. Ethan held an inaccurate definition of failure and dealt with a great deal of anxiety around needing to execute each task perfectly. He shared his experience of growing up in an Asian household as the eldest sibling, showing up as an obedient child – wanting to please his parents, show them respect, which only led him to developing a level of codependency. This perpetuated themes of pleasing other people, finding satisfaction in how others saw him, and this partly defined his version of what success meant for him. Ethan shares a mindset he operated from keeping him in survival mode, which in time led him to experience bitterness and resentment when he started to tap into his gut instinct and then brush it aside as he continued to please those around him. Ethan was not okay with making a mistake, feared messing up and worrying he would not be lovable. His key message to the listeners is that: don’t hold yourself back, you have so much potential, ability, skill and experience; don’t put yourself in a box and predefine yourself based on other people’s expectations; there’s more joy when you embrace your authentic self; take time to get to know yourself with all your flaws, blemishes and beauty.