ADHD & Fear of Failure: If You've Been Told You're Not Good Enough, Listen to This | Rosalie Boonstra

Do you have a dream you keep talking yourself out of?

Maybe you've been told it's not realistic. Maybe one bad piece of feedback shut you down for years. Maybe you had one brilliant idea and quietly decided it was the only one you'd ever get.

Because that's what fear of failure does. It doesn't stop you dreaming. It stops you starting.

This week's guest is Rosalie Boonstra, a Dutch couture designer and artist who makes the big, bold, fabulous gowns you see on red carpets and stages. One of her dresses landed on the cover of Vogue NL (on her 25th birthday, no less). She's won an award, she's won a TV show, and she's worked with brands, museums and filmmakers.

She was also bullied at school, doubted by her friends, knocked down at art school and diagnosed with ADHD in her late twenties.

And when that Vogue cover happened? Her first thought wasn't celebration. It was "why am I here?"

As Rosalie puts it: it sometimes takes a lot of time and the right people to find out you're not a failure.

So let's untangle ADHD and bringing your dreams to life:

🧡 Fear of failure: how do you keep creating when you've spent years being told you're not good enough?

🎨 Creating for you: what happens when you stop making what people liked last time and start making what you actually want to make?

🔸 Finding your people: where do you look when nobody around you gets it? (Rosalie found hers on Instagram) 💬 Feedback: why one negative comment can block an ADHD brain completely, and how it should be given instead

🧠 RSD: the three questions that tell you if you've got it, and the one thing Rosalie does now to get out of the spiral quicker

💰 ADHD in business: holding your price, describing your value, collaboration over competition, and the two things she'd tell any ADHD founder

Why listen?

We're the ones with all the ideas. That's the bit everyone loves to say about ADHD.

What nobody says is how many of those ideas never leave our heads. Because someone once told us we weren't good enough, and we believed them.

Whether you're a creative scared to switch careers, a late diagnosed woman who's been called too much, a founder who wants to shut the whole thing down every week, or an ADHDer with a dream you've been quietly sitting on, this episode is for you.

Rosalie's advice for the founder about to give up? Look for the real problem. Then ask for help.

Because the world doesn't need another beige copy of everyone else. It needs the bold, weird, too much version of you.

Follow Rosalie on Instagram: @rosalieboonstra

Follow us on instagram: @Adhd_untangled

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