Aodhan cover photo 2.jpg

Self-doubt, failure and opportunity

The things that I know now in life, are the things that I wish I would have known when I was growing up. I came from a rough childhood, caught between the struggle of education and multiple bereavements in my family. I was pessimistic and downright miserable. I thought it was all downhill from there, but I continued to push forward - this led me to my success, by eventually winning the Derry Credit Union’s Young People’s Award for Business and Entrepreneurship. I secured and freelanced for clients, took part in film festivals, and facilitated funded youth media projects. Alongside this, I have built up my social media presence with thousands of people following me. From August 2019 to August 2020, 3,908,935 unique users saw my content.

Throughout my experiences, I have developed a mindset which challenges the 'ordinary ways' that people think and I would love to share my frame of mind as I feel it is important, beneficial and gives people an interesting perspective which hopefully they can take something from.

If you have a great idea - do it. The longer you wait, the further you are from it.

Most people will doubt themselves. You will question yourself; you will doubt yourself. This might not be necessarily always a bad thing. Self-doubt is normal and it happens to everybody. Think alternatively. Use self-doubt as your ambition and enthusiasm to pursue your goals.

Everybody should get out there in the world, give it all you got and take chances. The likelihood of you failing along the way is high, but you should embrace failure… yes that’s right. Don’t be afraid to fail because everybody fails; and if they don’t, the weren’t even trying. Commit and discipline yourself, because ultimately, that’s how you progress - nobody can do it for you. People become successful from hard work and trust me, hard work does work and you will get to where you want to be if you keep working hard. Think of failure as motivation to work harder. You will have to challenge yourself, but a challenge will always give you a better sense of achievement once you make it.

Good things happen when you care less and do more. Have confidence in yourself and speak confidently in yourself because you are truly much more competent than you believe you are. Do not talk yourself out of good opportunities. Do not worry about not being able to do something perfectly - figure out how to do things along the way. If you believe in your ability to do something, others will too.

Aodhán Roberts

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Georgia O'Kane - Our House is on Fire