TED audio collective.
You'Re listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
Let me start off today's episode with a confession.
Sometimes when I'm working on a new project, whether it is a joke or a script or any sort of new idea, I have this image in my head of how successful it's going to be and how it's going to be perfect and everyone is going to love it.
And that idea, that image I have in my head, is in a completely unrealistic alternate universe.
Because once the excitement fades, I start to think about the real world, the world that I actually live in.
And in this world, it is inevitable that no matter how good anything is, someone is going to not like it.
And in fact, someone will probably hate it.
And the fear of that rejection, well, the fear of that rejection often makes me stop working on the project altogether.
I wish that I could say that that is a fear that I've gotten over.
And look, sometimes I do manage to finish things and put work out into the world despite being afraid of rejection.
I mean, you're listening to this podcast, after all.
It's not just ideas.
Sometimes it translates into products.
But if I'm really being honest, there are a lot of times where that fear stops me in my tracks and I don't put the thing out there.
And that's a shame, because I know from experience that rejection gets easier if you practice facing it.
The first time I got on stage to do stand up at an open mic, I did shockingly well, and I was actually really hooked.
But the second time, oh, boy.
The second time I did stand up, I bombed to total silence.