myrastuff:

Succeeding at life is a lot like being a supervillain: you can fail a thousand times without permanent consequences, but you only need to win once to change everything.

Obviously this is a flawed metaphor, and it doesn’t apply to every situation, but I find it nicely describes my life. A few years ago, I’d started and dropped two Etsy stores that didn’t work, been rejected from several publishers, and abandoned a whole pile of other failed projects. Then one Etsy store started getting customers, I got my first small freelance writing gig, I started a webcomic. A few tiny victories snowballed, building my career and my confidence, and within half a year I went from feeling like a failure who’d never amount to anything to feeling pretty confident about my future. I’ve seen the same thing happen to friends: one job offer, one success, one “yes”, and things getting better faster than they’d ever imagined.

So, if you’re where I was a few years ago, I encourage you to submit that job application you’re not quite qualified for, send your writing to that prestigious publisher, start on that business idea, write that networking email. Fail often, fail cheaply, and fail without beating yourself up. It only takes one win to conquer the world.

Good luck in 2018, everyone!