“You’re trying too hard! You should stop…”
I sat across from my mentor in his office near the waters of Lake Zurich.
“I have a good sense for people,” he continued. “I know what makes a true entrepreneur, and you aren’t one of them. You should let go. Find a different path.”
I felt my body crumble from the inside out. Was he right? Had I been fooling myself all along?
I had poured everything into my tech startup; time, energy, money, heart. And especially this obsessive kind of hard work. I believed in my vision, and I had people who supported me.
But the one person whose opinion I truly valued was telling me it was all for nothing?
The session ended. I walked out of his office, in full anger, disappointment, and disbelief. I wanted to prove him wrong, to ignore his words and push forward.
And I did.
Over the next few weeks, I worked even harder. I was about to secure a new investment deal, a breakthrough that should have fueled the whole business for great success.
But something felt off.
My vision was slipping.
My fire dimmed.
My motivation cracked.
The dream I had once hold on so tightly dissolved like sand through my fingers.
I was furious. How could this happen? After everything I had given, everything I had sacrificed, why was it all slipping away? I wanted so badly to finally get there. To finally be there. I had worked so hard. Why wasn’t life playing in my favor?
Then, after I calmed down. My broken dream was rising as a phoenix from the ashes, and I saw the hidden truth in my mentor’s words. He had held up a mirror, and I was finally ready to look.
I asked myself: If a dream can slip away so easily, if I have to fight so hard just to hold it together, was it ever truly mine? Was this really the life I wanted? What was I hiding? What was I trying to prove?
Maybe this wasn’t all about trying harder to win the battle. Maybe it was about letting go of a battle that was never truly mine.
Deep inside, I felt something unshakable, a knowing that I was meant for something else. Something greater. Something rawer. Something truer. And I knew it was waiting for me to claim it.
