You Have to Be Willing to Look Ugly

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · May 8, 2025 · 8m

Most people never do anything important in their life—not because they’re lazy, but because they can’t stand feeling unimportant.

To build anything real, you have to walk through rejection. You have to be okay with looking like a fool, with people asking, “what the hell are you doing?” and you having no good answer.

I’ve lived it. I still do.

I’ve spent years pouring time and money into something that looks like a flop to the outside world. But I show up. I make it happen. I take the next step—even when it’s embarrassing.

That’s what it means to do good work. You push the needle by doing…