Young, Ambitious, and Anxious? Here's My 6-Step Recipe for Overcoming Fear and Achieving Your Goals

Over the course of my 9-year entrepreneurial journey, I learned some tough lessons about the fundamental elements required to succeed as a young and driven founder. Mental health, persistence, and patience have emerged as the most critical components, thanks to the immense pressure and overwhelming anxiety that I faced. Let me share my story with you, and hopefully, my hard-won insights can help you navigate the challenges of starting and running a business.

When you are extremely ambitious and get pushed into thoughts led by social media society, extreme feelings of overwhelming anxiety can ask a lot of energy, making it hard to understand what it really takes to appoint yourself as the person in charge.

Prior to starting my business, I did not expect how hard it would be. Yet the fact that it is so hard created urgency to become a better me.

During my journey as an entrepreneur, it was hard to find advice out of the ordinary that was also relatable. Luckily, the urgent need to improve and become a better me and led to learning the following:

6 steps to overcome anxiety and becoming a man with a plan:

1. Learn & Adapt:

When you are in your early twenties, you don't know what you really want, and what you think you want is not what you want years from now. Accepting that you should try and taste everything your ambition screams for is all about what you should do. Give everything you do a 100% and fail at 9/10 of those things. (Example: I actually started a clothing brand when I was 17. I made €10K profit within 3 months, but after the first hype, the profit started declining, and I started to lose the joy and started failing my business. It was not because I wasn't persistent. It was because my ambition had 10 other things I wanted to try, which was fine.)

2. Shape & Lock in Your Honest Vision:

The more you try, the more you fail, but even more, you shape a vision. A vision can only be one that you feel deep inside you, a burning desire. Everyone has one. It is just a matter of sticking through and being honest with yourself (what would you do if you couldn't fail). Once you genuinely believe you have shaped your vision, you lock in that vision and don't let go, never let go. Force yourself to stay on track, even with how scary it might get.

3. Become the Identity and F*ck Imposter Syndrome:

The biggest failure rate why dreams go to waste is that you never started. Why you? Why could or should anyone take you seriously talking about a topic you think you know something about? And what if they are all looking at you like you are some kind of thing?

It's absolute bullshit, first of all, everybody is too busy with themselves and never thought of you in the first place.

Second of all, nobody was a born scientist, writer, actor, or prime minister. Everybody was born a naked baby. So you might as well stick through with it.

So instead of worrying, try this: Start believing in your vision and acting on it, which should result in developing the identity of the person you will have to become, the person that achieves your dreams and vision. Now start acting like that person and take action.

It might sound contradicting, but the best next thing you bring to the game is the understanding of:

4. Patience, Patience, Patience:

If your vision is scary enough to make you feel fearful, it definitely won't be achieved overnight or even in 5 years from now. The person who can delay the outcome to decades from now is the one most likely to achieve it. Imagine the resilience you would need to go to the gym every day to see results 10 years from now. Well, that is similar to how you should treat your dreams. This creates a layer of depth and understanding that allows you to stay centred and calm in the chaos. Don't give in to the emotions of potentially losing because you will always have time to pick yourself back up (remember step 1: Learn & Adapt).

5. Cut the noise, focus, and stay persistent:

Now that we have learned, adapted, shaped a vision, created an identity, and have 20 years to achieve it, all that is left to do is to do it. Stop writing and throw away your little journal book. We know the plan, the blueprint is here. Cut out everything that could be a distraction and put all your other ideas on hold. This is it. And believe me, this is easier said than done. Many people talk about validating and killing their darlings, which is fine. But don't kill your vision or dream. Hold onto it, learn, adapt, and overcome once again. You can literally do this as long as you stick through.

Here is an example of how hard it was for me:

As some might know, it was and still is my almost unattainable dream to become a Hollywood-featured film actor one day. I spent my whole childhood since I was 8 acting in theatres, series, commercials, Disney, and more to get closer to this dream. But I tried more things, learned and adapted, and although this dream is not dead, it is just not part of my current locked-in 10 to 20-year vision and dream. It might be one, but that's for the next phase. So, although I always struggled to have two core dreams, I chose one and parked the other. And it is fine.

Last but not least:

6. Just Do It, as Nike said:

Just keep swimming, and you will get there. But without doing, you will never. You can write as many plans as you want and create as many habit checklists, cheat sheets, diets, and workout plans, but you will need to get the hours in of actually doing it.

I hope I am right for myself, and if not, I will learn and adapt. But this is how far I got by challenging myself every day for the last 9 years. And to anyone who may be struggling or feeling lost on their own entrepreneurial journey, I hope my story serves as a reminder that success is not achieved overnight. It takes time, effort, and a willingness to learn and adapt. With mental fortitude and persistence, anyone can overcome obstacles and achieve their goals. So keep pushing forward, and don't give up on your dreams.