đ¤ The Odd Fear of Being Seen Trying
â And Why It Sabotages Us With No Mercy
Itâs not failure we fear.
Itâs the shame of being seen failing.
Andre Agassi deliberately lost the 1996 Australian Open semi-final.
He was the favourite.
He was the defending champion.
And he still threw the match to Michael Chang.
Why?
He was scared to face Boris Becker in the final.
He felt like a fraud.
He didnât think he was good enough.
So he tanked the match.
To dodge the shame of losing on a bigger stage.
Sneaky AF Creative Ego Sabotage
Agassiâs creative ego tricked him.
By choosing to lose to Chang, he felt the illusion of control.
If he didnât try, he couldnât be judged.
If he didnât give everything, the loss âdidnât count.â
It was the illusion of control over the fear of not being good enough.
He regretted it later.
However, this moment reveals the power of the stories our ego tells.
This is so common in professional tennis that it has a name: tanking the game.
Federer. Djokovic. Graf.
Theyâve all been accused of it.
Most deny it.
Some donât even know theyâre doing it.
Agassi confessed it in his autobiography.
Self-sabotage is ego protection.
When you think youâre going to lose, you pull back.
You donât give 100%.
Then your creative ego can blame your lack of effort, instead of your lack of talent.
Pretty fucked up, right?
But this isnât just athletes.
Itâs you.
Itâs me.
Itâs every highly sensitive, multi-talented creative.
How You Self-Sabotage Your Success đŹ
People ask me how to unlock their creative potential.
But thatâs the wrong question.
The real question is:
How do I remove the blocks that stop me from fulfilling my creative potential?
To paraphrase James Clear:
We donât rise to the levels of our creative potential.
We fall to the levels of our hidden creative blocks.
We tank our own creative projects.
We call it polishing.
We call it clarity
We call it research.
But really?
90% of your research is procrastination disguised as productivity.
You feel something is holding you back, you know youâre high potential, but you canât quite reach it.
Sound familiar? These are your hidden creative blocks.
Every creative person carries a core shame wound:
âIâm not good enough.â
Our creative ego hates uncertainty.
It wants control.
It wants safety.
So it protects itself by sabotaging our own work to provide the illusion of control.
Agassiâs ego convinced him to tank the match
because losing to Becker felt too shameful.
Your creative ego does the same thing with your creative ideas.
If a project doesnât blow up instantly, you panic.
You flip-flop to a new idea.
You change niches.
You switch creative direction.
Not because youâre a multipotentialite with multiple talents
But because your creative ego is avoiding the shame
of you and your idea ânot being good enough.â
We get stuck between our creative ambitions
and our creative shame.
Our creative ego tells us
itâs safer to stay hidden
than to be seen trying and failing.
This is why marketing your work feels icky.
You donât want to be perceived as sales-y.
Or needy.
Or annoying.
But underneath that?
Youâre scared to share your work
and get silenceâŚ
So we hide.
We donât reach out to people who could help.
We donât post enough, or at all
We donât share.
This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the project fails.
Our creative egos can blame our lack of marketing effort, over our lack of talent.
If you have not fulfilled your creative potential, itâs probably because your creative ego is sabotaging you.
The worst part is we canât see it.
We canât read the label when weâre stuck in the jar.
Iâm the same.
This is why Iâm writing this book. To reveal the hidden creative blocks and give you a simple four-part framework to turn them into purpose.
The good news is that creative blocks are easy to spot. Once you see them, you canât unsee them.
They follow the same pattern every time. And once you know the pattern, you can use a clear strategy to integrate them.
Your creative potential isnât about talent. Itâs about understanding whatâs blocking your talent.
Agassi did this.
He faced his creative blocks, turned them into purpose, and became a Hall of Famer.
Fear of Failure Paradox
Fear of Failure Paradox
We make a new creative project.
If it is not instantly received as genius, the fear of failure kicks in.
We want to avoid our core shame wound. Iâm not good enough.
Our creative egos convince us that it will be less shameful if we do not promote it one hundred percent.
This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The project fails.
How to Escape the Loop
Awareness
Name the loop.
See the ego trap.
Awareness breaks the illusion of control.Create from the wound
Use shame as creative fuel.
Creating from the wound transforms the wound.Reestablish your relationship with failure
Itâs not failure you fear.
Itâs the shame of being seen to fail.
Failure triggers the core shame wound of âIâm not good enoughâ
Thatâs why you avoid it.Creative experiments
Detach ego from outcomes.
Treat everything like an experiment.
Some experiments succeed, some fail.
Itâs not on you, itâs simply an experiment.
This mindset shift changed my entire creative experienceRebuild self-trust
Start and finish something tiny.
Repeat this to rebuild self-confidenceHelp Others
Integrate your shame in your creative work to validate othersâ experiences, and your own
We do not rise to the levels of our creative potential; we fall to the levels of hidden creative blocks.






Thank you for pointing out the booby traps