Don't let anyone define your worth, determine your talent or declare your "potential". You and only you know your worth and what you can achieve!
Of course, there will be moments when you won't believe in yourself and you'll feel judged by others. You'll be looking for external approval that never seems to come, maybe disappointed because results seem totally opposite to what you expected or what you really wanted to achieve.
Let me share what I think. You know who you are. Maybe you have just stopped listening to yourself because of what other people have told you. Or maybe you've let self-doubt overpower your confidence and sabotage your growth. But remember, if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will!
You may be missing tools. You may be missing knowledge. You may be missing an understanding of how to read key situations or people. But you can learn all that!
You need to keep growing, learning continuously, surrounding yourself with talented people that are better than you in order to learn from them. Learn how to listen, how to receive feedback and profit from it, considering other's opinions only as informative guides, never see them as the absolute truth. Practicing 'giving first by helping others without expecting anything in return (which will allow you to discover what others really appreciate about your talent), but never abandon that inner voice, your path, your dream: Never ever surrender because someone says you can't!
Every rule out there is a social construct created by us humans, it's all relative. There is always someone who decides or has established things, and certainly, someone who can make an exception.
Take any career plan, for example, a rule for promotion, salary increase, performance review, or boss' decision: They are all external things that you can choose to accept or not. You have always alternatives, possible negotiations, there are unlimited paths, they might be less comfortable, riskier, but very powerful and satisfying. You can always work for someone else, or you can generate your own work (entrepreneurship is now accessible to anyone independent of the resources they control).
In the end, the external world can and will expose you to anything, life is unpredictable and at times it can feel overwhelming and challenging, but those hardships are necessary in order to grow. People may try to hurt you, but it's up to you to choose how to react to it, the only responsible person is you, and you have the power to decide how you will tell yourself the story (one of the most powerful things we have), choosing to be the victim of external things or the protagonist of your actions!
Never stay in a job (even if it is your own company), a community or group in which:
Disrespect fear a bit! Have fun! Enjoy being who you are! And work hard, grow, learn something new every day! Everything will happen in due time.
