Is there any point in forcing yourself to eat disgusting food? Wear shoes that rub your feet raw? Have sex with someone who doesn’t excite you? Try to fall asleep at night with the lights still on?
You might say, “That’s absurd. It’s pointless violence.”
And yet this is exactly what people do when they are not doing their own work, living someone else’s life, ashamed to show their “unacceptable” self.
I know this feeling well. I’ve been there more than once. The reasons don’t matter. Achievements, money, knowledge, recognition—none of it made up for one simple truth: I am betraying myself.
All those signs of success only made the angst worse. As if to say, “How dare you not be happy when you have everything—A, B, C, and D?”
The opposite is also true. The moment I turned — even slightly — toward the vague pull of curiosity, something inside me came alive. Faith returned that life could still hold beauty, harmony, and meaning.
If that’s the case, why not just keep following your interest?
Because it’s scary.
This is the territory of the unknown. There is always a lack of information, skills, and guarantees. One careless step—and reality bites.
That’s why new possibilities excite us—and scare us. They are like a rope stretched over Niagara Falls: cross it and you’re a hero; make the smallest mistake and you fall screaming into the hungry water.
You can’t be half yourself. Not even 95 percent. Life asks questions that are answered not by the mind or will, but by your whole being.
It is much easier to watch real life through a crack in the wall.
But one day, even that will grow old.
Curiosity will teach you to move through fear.
What becomes valuable is what opens up when you begin...
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.
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