It is ok if you are still a little unsure of how you want your life to end up looking like. Take Kathryn Minshew for example, who ended up creating her own website based on careers. She saw a gap in the market for a website that would both help you find a job and give you necessary career advice.
When starting up her business, she certainly learned some common mistakes to avoid but she also learned that anyone can be an entrepreneur. When she saw people who have built their own business in the past she figured they had some kind of magic power to make it successful, but when we worked behind the scenes with them, she found that was not true.
Of course they worked hard and had a great idea at an opportune time, but when that all goes away, they are still someone who doesn't know what they are doing. You still have to maintain and upgrade your product according to what users want or have issues with, and that may bring up a whole new problem that you have to figure out how to solve as best as you can.
This was the wake-up call that Minshew needed to get her website, The Muse, up and running. So far, her company has helped over 50 million people get jobs. While she was nervous and skeptical at first, she gained confidence after talking to other people who had been in her shoes and come out successful.
Even the most successful entrepreneurs second-guess themselves and even make the wrong decisions. Take Dawoon Kang for example. Kang is the cofounder, COO, and head of marketing of the dating app called Coffee Meets Bagel.
Kang told Minshew that when she first begin to develop her app, she figured that if successful people who are more experienced than she is tell her that she is doing a good thing with her app, then it must be true.
This mindset eventually shifted to the idea that no one really has the right answer to anything. While people who are entrepreneurs have to investigate as much as possible and put together everything that they learn that is great, but it is ultimately up to them to make the final decisions on matters.
She exercised this new mindset when she and her co founders turned down a $30 million offer that was presented to them on the show "Shark Tank" because they believed in their hearts that the company was worth more than that. This happened yet again when Kang refused to copy Tinder after several of her investors suggest that she do this.
Kang did feel slightly conflicted about her choices when she made them, but the fact that she will never be 100% confident when making a decision means that she is a true entrepreneur.
Because you are doing something that no one else has ever done, there will always be some hesitancy in making these important decisions. You don't know the right or the wrong thing to do because you haven't seen anyone ahead of you make these same decisions or mistakes.
However, self-doubt and a self confidence level that is on the lower end of normal is actually a good thing, especially if you are starting something new. These feelings make you think through every decision as much as you can and consider any possibilities for failure and best and worst case scenarios.
Most people, even those who are not entrepreneurs, are really just doing the best that they can with the tools they have in front of them. People rarely know exactly what they are doing all of the time, and if they did, every business would be successful and there would be no room for competition.
If you feel like you are a bit lost, do some research, learn about some other people's failures and avoid making their mistakes, and just talk to people who have been there before. Also, if you mess up the first time, you will know exactly what you need to fix in order to be more successful. Remember that there is a big process to learning and it is something you have to go through before getting what you ultimately want.
