When Your Superpower Stops Working: How to Rebuild Lost Confidence

What are you supposed to do when some core aspect of who you think you are just doesn't seem to work anymore?

For most of my life, I believed I had a couple of superpowers—abilities that would help me get into or out of just about any situation, that would always be there when I needed them.

Lately, one of them feels like it's gone. It's not working. Maybe it's died.

And it has thrown my world into disarray, making me a person I don't recognize and holding me back from all kinds of things I want to accomplish.

The Superpowers We All Rely On

My first superpower may not be the most relatable: I'm a talker. I'm not afraid to turn on the camera or get on stage and talk without any script or preparation. I don't really have fear around that.

But the one that's probably more relatable was this belief that my instincts were pretty good—that I could trust my gut, that I would take action when I needed to, that I'd make decisions without endless deliberation.

Lately, that just seems like it's died.

I'm second-guessing absolutely everything I'm doing. I second-guessed whether I should make this video or what tone I should take. And that's not who I normally was.

This loss of instinctual confidence affects more than just business decisions—it seeps into every area of life. When you can't trust your gut anymore, every choice becomes a mountain of uncertainty.

Where Confidence Really Comes From

I think the confidence I've had for most of my life came from how I was raised. My parents were incredibly loving, and my dad always said such a simple phrase that really stuck with me and became part of my core DNA.

He used to just say: "You're a Harrison. Things work out for the Harrisons."

What that meant to me was that I could do just about anything. It didn't matter if it was unconventional, against the grain, or risky—ultimately, it would work out for the best.

And for the most part, it did. It gave me confidence to do all kinds of things.

But when I hit a roadblock, like I have recently, when I'm trying to do something I don't have 100% control over and it's just not working out, that confidence seems to be going away.

This experience reveals something crucial about entrepreneurial confidence—it's not about feeling certain, but about maintaining the ability to act despite uncertainty.

The AI Trap That's Stealing Our Instincts

Maybe the cause of this insecurity and indecision I'm experiencing has been my relationship with AI.

Before AI, you really didn't have a choice. I was too lazy to go to the library and research everything, so I was just going to make a decision, try something, and learn from it. Hey, I'm a Harrison—it's going to work out.

But now that I have ChatGPT and Gemini and all the other tools, I find myself turning to them before I take action.

Even this video—a year and a half ago, I would have just turned on the camera and talked. But I had to work up the nerve today to do it. I turned to ChatGPT. I asked if it was a good idea. Should I refine it?

When I didn't like its answers, I kept opening new tabs and trying again until it told me something I wanted to hear. Even then, I was skeptical. I took the results ChatGPT gave me and fed them to Gemini to get a consensus before taking action.

That is not a good way to do things.

I think a lot of us are doing this now. My fear is that I've been doing it for so long, I'm losing the ability to take action the way I used to.

This over-reliance on external validation—whether from AI, experts, or endless research—is a modern form of analysis paralysis that's particularly insidious because it feels productive.

When Confidence Dies (And How It Comes Back)

I've been through this before. I've lost my confidence once before in a drastic way.

When I was in my 20s, I had a business fail. At that point, I had dropped out of university, wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life. I was 28, had never had a job except working for myself, and didn't know how I was going to move forward.

My confidence was completely gone. I did not believe that everything was going to work out.

But as soon as I had a win or two under my belt, the confidence returned because it was my natural state. My instincts returned, and the next 20 years were basically me following them again.

So I know it can come back.

This pattern reveals something important: confidence isn't a permanent trait—it's a renewable resource that comes from taking action and seeing results, not from feeling certain before you start.

The Real Secret Behind "Things Work Out"

What I've learned is that my dad's lesson—"Things work out for the Harrisons"—has nothing to do with the Harrisons.

I can tell you without getting into family history that we're not perfect. It's not filled with presidents and executives (although I'm told Benjamin Harrison might be a distant relative somehow).

The reason it works out isn't because we know all the answers. The reason things work out with that simple saying is because that saying helped me take action.

It made sure I was always in motion, that there was always some form of momentum.

And I think that is the real secret.

This connects to a fundamental truth about overcoming impostor syndrome—it's not about feeling qualified, but about acting despite feeling unqualified and letting the results build your confidence.

The Only Way Forward

If you're stuck trying to start a business, change your career, or do anything meaningful, it's not about finding a trick. There's no magic formula for any of this stuff.

But if you're willing to just believe that eventually it'll work out, that eventually you'll find the answer, that eventually something good will come from all your efforts—that's where confidence comes from.

The confidence allows you to take action, and the results come from those simple actions.

If you're where I am—second-guessing too much, relying on artificial intelligence or anything else for validation—my advice is to:

• Close the laptop
• Stop thinking about every way things can be done
• Stop expecting there to be one right way to do it
• Just go out and try

The Evidence of Imperfect Action

The only evidence I have that good things happen in life is that they never came from doing things "the right way."

I dropped out of school. I started businesses without perfect plans. I worked places and just experimented. I was willing to speak where I wasn't qualified to speak. I was willing to do things other people weren't willing to do.

And it always eventually paid off. Not in a moment, but through the skills I built, the relationships, the connections. Ultimately, that's what led to success.

This approach often feels scary to start, but taking imperfect action is the only way to rebuild the confidence that comes from real experience rather than theoretical preparation.

Rebuilding Your Superpower

So I'm going to try it again. I'm going to try more often to just turn on the camera without second-guessing what I'm supposed to say. I'm going to try not to lean into every trend.

I'm going to keep building the business I'm trying to build and offering the advice I'm trying to offer in the most authentic way I can—just whatever comes to mind from the lessons I've experienced.

Because if we all do that, if we believe in ourselves, if we trust our guts, good things will happen.

If you rely on others to tell you what you're supposed to do, at best, you're going to end up a carbon copy.

Your Superpower Isn't Gone

If you're reading this and recognizing yourself—if your instincts feel broken, if you're second-guessing everything, if what used to work for you doesn't anymore—know this:

Your superpower isn't gone. It's just buried under layers of overthinking, external validation, and fear of making the wrong choice.

The way back isn't through finding the perfect answer or the right strategy. It's through taking small actions, building small wins, and remembering that momentum creates confidence, not the other way around.

Your family name might not be Harrison, but you can adopt the same belief: Things work out for people who take action.

Because they just do.

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Struggling with decision paralysis? Learn practical strategies for overcoming analysis paralysis and getting back into action.

Ready to rebuild your action-taking confidence in a supportive environment? The First Step Entrepreneur program helps you practice making decisions and taking action without overthinking.