How do you overcome Fear😱😱

Well, I am not the CEO of a trillionaire company. But, here is my story.

When I started out in engineering in 2018, I was totally overwhelmed and confused about which fields to pursue, which courses to watch, how to connect with seniors, what to prepare, and most of all how to land internships and jobs.

I asked my bhaiya to put me through to some software developers since he is in the IT industry for 10–15 years, I thought he must have some contacts. He arranged a meeting with a guy who worked in the US for 10 years and then came back to India to pursue MBA from a top IIM. Here’s what he told me.

“Rajat, package ke peeche mat bhaag. Just develop your skills. Kuch saal baad package tumhare peeche bhaagega”

I thought, what a cliche? Agar itni jobs hoti market mai, to log jobless kyu hote?

But I literally had no choice but to apply for internships and develop my skills.

Here is a screenshot of my Internshala profile. The list that you see is the number of rejections I faced before I got my first internship.

Wait! Did you think that was it? Look at the number of pages.

I applied to so many profiles and didn’t get even a call from more than 5 of them. Naturally, I started getting anxious. But, what could Rajat do? Well, just apply. So, Rajat kept studying and Rajat kept applying.

So, did Rajat get an internship?

I got these two internships from Internshala. It gave me some confidence to apply more and appear in more interviews. I landed 4–5 internships(yes, all paid) within 3 months.

It feels really good to choose which company do you want to intern at. I have rejected at least 4–5 opportunities in the last few months because I didn’t have time to work with them. I guess that guy’s advice was actually true.

I don’t even open Internshala now. How do you overcome the fear of failure?

Simple. By trying and failing.

PS: Don’t get anxious by looking at the success post of people on LinkedIn and other places. I am telling you those are just as below as you are but are really good at fake it until you make it. I have been through all that. Focus on your journey and your skills. Nothing else matters. The self-proclaimed success entrepreneurs on LinkedIn are nothing but fake lead generators.

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” — Warren Buffett