Desperation does not usually breed creative solutions. Resourcefulness and efficiency, perhaps, but as with all things, trial in moderation can bear fruit. There is a tipping point beyond which the valley of desperation flatlines into learned helplessness.

The biggest tech companies were all founded by privileged individuals who started on a solid foundation “I started company X in my [parent’s multi-million dollar home’s] garage.” So if you did not start there, fear not, you can get there, but do not succumb to the popular mantra that “deprivation breeds innovation” along the way because depriving yourself of joy and indulgences is not truthfully the way folks have historically built these companies.

In my early career, I frequented social circles that subscribed to the mantra that suffering and depravity were ingredients for success. As if the scarcity mindset bred a heightened focus and a keen sense of pragmatism. All things relative, if you ease up on the yacht parties and the galas, one may find more time to work on meaningful projects; if you subtract time with family & friends and postponing vacation, one may find oneself isolated, depressed, and burnt out.

The irony in Occam’s Razor, the principle of least complexity, is that everyone who regularly struggles to find time for themselves and who is on financially fragile footing is forced to live by its principles for survival. The trust fund kid on the next block over who has never experienced financial duress, will have a harder time grasping the principle because she/he has never been directly impacted by the consequences of not sharpening the blade of that razor.

Bottom line, regardless of how you came into this world, venture out into it and build your vision with your own hands, but be patient with yourself. The world is waiting to be moved and you are 100% capable of withstanding the weight of realizing your own dreams, just make sure to enjoy your life guilt-free, embrace the pivots that the journey will bring, and stop comparing yourself to the person in the hot air balloon above.