Founders don’t lie randomly. They lie to survive. Every entrepreneur plays pretend—faking confidence while drowning in panic. They quit stable jobs, stake everything on nothing, then tell themselves it’ll work. What else can they do?
This isn’t just external theater. It’s internal survival. When you pretend to be “crushing it,” your brain believes it. Fake confidence becomes real confidence. An elevated mood blocks negative feedback. The lie feels better than the truth.
But here’s the trap: The more you lie, the less you learn. The same lies that protect you from pain also hide you from truth. You can’t fix what you won’t see.
I’ve watched this cycle destroy hundreds of startups. Fear creates lies. Lies create false confidence. False confidence creates blindness. Blindness creates failure—the very thing they feared.
The best founders break this cycle early. They say “I don’t know shit” and mean it. That humility becomes their foundation. The truth hurts. Lies kill.