You can’t bet on yourself if you don’t trust yourself

What do you want to do? If your life experiences have been anything like mine (e.g., growing up in collectivist culture, a formal education in business, working in professional services), they may have conditioned you to understand what other people wanted. Your own inclinations may appear less clearly to you because you haven’t paid attention to them in a while. Maybe you compromise, twisting yourself into fitting the opportunities in front of you that you see; you want to start a new independent project—maybe a business—but you’re looking for new jobs instead. Or you chase whatever’s exciting to you in the present moment, because the feeling of validation is very rewarding. Or you decide to simply want whatever other people want; either in the mimetic sense of copying other people’s desires and adhering to convention, or simply supporting them to achieve their goals. If they’re happy, you’re happy. But, you tell yourself, not everybody gets to do what they want. As a result, you’ve…