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Entrepreneurship is full of paradoxes, and one of the most intriguing ones is balancing unwavering confidence with harsh self-reflection. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and PayPal, captures this perfectly: "You want to have some self-delusion of like, yes, I'm sure I can make it work. On the other hand, you want to be asking yourself every day and every week, is my confidence in this going up or down?"
Photo: David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Confidence Paradox
Imagine you're building a startup, much like Elon Musk when he started SpaceX. You need a bit of self-delusion to even begin—believing you can make rockets reusable when no one else has succeeded. This confidence pushes you to work harder, take risks, and keep moving forward even when the odds seem impossible. But like Musk, you also have to constantly assess whether your belief in success is growing or waning. If it’s the latter, it’s time to ask tough questions and make adjustments.
Navigating the Valleys
Hoffman points out that every valuable startup goes through periods of doubt—what he calls "the valley of the shadow." During these times, you might wonder why you ever thought your idea was good in the first place. For example, when Airbnb first launched, they struggled to gain traction, and their founders questioned if people would really open their homes to strangers. But instead of giving up, they focused on understanding their users better, iterating their product, and eventually hitting the right note with their audience.
Learning and Pivoting
Just because your confidence dips doesn’t mean your idea is doomed. It's a signal to learn, pivot, and tackle the problem with new vigor. Think of Instagram: It started as a check-in app called Burbn. When the founders realized the photo-sharing feature was more popular, they pivoted to focus entirely on that aspect, leading to the Instagram we know today.
Conclusion
The entrepreneurial journey is not a straight path. It's filled with ups and downs, requiring both relentless belief and the wisdom to know when to course-correct. Embracing the paradox of confidence versus reality allows entrepreneurs to navigate these challenges, learn from setbacks, and ultimately create something impactful.
Listen to Reid Hoffman:
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