In the previous article, we examined why not knowing the narrative creates anxiety,
and the kinds of misguided reactions people tend to fall into as a result.
In particular, we focused on new founders and their relationship with platforms.
[See: The Phenomenology of Anxiety (Foreword): No Job, No Salary, No Security]
[See: The Phenomenology of Anxiety (Part 2): Your Anxiety Isn’t Emotional — It’s Structural.]
[See: The Phenomenology of Anxiety (Part 3): The Silent Killer of Small Businesses — Buying Traffic Kills Your Narrative]
In this article, we turn to a more practical question: What should you do when there is no external feedback at all?
1. Compensating for the Absence of Feedback : Accumulating Experience (Method 1)
Without external feedback, interpreting the narrative is extremely difficult. Normally, with enough time, high-quality traffic, and meaningful feedback, one can interpret signals and gradually evolve. However, in the early stage—when no feedback exists at all—there is nothing solid to anchor one’s confidence.
That is precisely why it becomes critical to install an internal support structure—a kind of jig—that prevents psychological collapse. This article focuses on how to build that structure.
[Why Experience Matters]
Even with ample capital, if you have no sense of how things are actually unfolding, anxiety is inevitable. Even CEOs, surrounded by endless reports, sometimes go undercover to see firsthand whether their organizations are truly functioning.
In reality, signals do appear as a narrative unfolds. The problem is that we usually recognize them only in hindsight—“Ah, that was a positive signal,” or “That was a warning sign.” Veterans who have endured multiple trial-and-error cycles can spot these signals early. Beginners cannot.
This is why you should never jump in at full scale from the start. Begin small. Observe the full cycle. Do not let wounded pride push you into overcommitting early. As much as possible, do not blindly trust YouTube, AI tools, or generalized advice. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Stay close to people with real, lived experience. These individuals carry contextual knowledge: what decision they made, under what conditions, what signals they noticed, and what outcomes followed. That kind of information allows for one-to-one contextual comparison. Generic statements never do.
This is why, in consulting, clients become frustrated when slides are filled with vague terms like “general” or “best practice.” They ask, “Fine—but how exactly does Samsung do this?” As a result, the true core competency of senior consultants was never slide design or abstract planning. It was human sourcing—access to people who had actually been there.
[Did People Around You Encourage You First?]
There is a subtle but critical distinction when it comes to indirect experience. When you ask people after you start a business—“What do you think of this?”—their responses are immediately contaminated by bias. Some aggressively hunt for flaws. Others avoid honesty to spare your feelings: “Everything will work out. God bless you.” Neither response provides usable signals. Uncertainty remains, and anxiety persists.
By contrast, there are moments before anything officially begins—casual stories, test dishes, draft videos, demo songs—when people spontaneously say, “You should sell this,” or “You should really do something with this.” At that point, there is no prior commitment, no sunk cost, no social pressure.
Responses tend to be honest. This is why, before launching anything in earnest, it is worth asking yourself: Did people ever encourage me first—without being prompted?
When this kind of signal repeats three or four times, it usually means there is at least some viable seed.
Evaluation after starting a business is polluted by bias. Casual reactions before starting are closer to pure signal.
Signals That Reduced My Own Anxiety
When I decided to grow a blog, several prior signals helped stabilize me psychologically:
- A junior from my gaming group once told me, after I casually shared stories about self-employment and philosophy in a group chat, that it was genuinely entertaining—and that there was nothing like it on YouTube. He suggested I try it as a side project.
- A conversation with my younger sibling, over drinks. I said: “We live in an era where who sells matters more than what is sold. People no longer buy functions—they buy style.” He said it perfectly articulated something he had felt intuitively about branding.
- A former coworker once remarked that she should have learned business from me before opening her own shop. Franchise headquarters, she said, only show successful store tours,
but never teach how to run an efficient kitchen, reduce labor costs, or improve menus in practice.
All of these signals occurred before I ever started the blog.
What I am not saying is: “If you receive these signals, you will succeed.” What I am saying is this: When such signals exist, anxiety is reduced even during periods when the narrative is unclear. They are not sufficient conditions for success, but they are necessary conditions for psychological stability.
2. Compensating for the Absence of Feedback: Exploring Alternative Narratives (Method 2)
(1) Do Not Believe Success Myths
Korean society has a peculiar cultural phenomenon rarely seen in the West: the obsession with “excavating” success stories. People scrutinize the lives of successful figures under a microscope, dismantling the supposed “positive influence” narratives to expose the actual mechanisms underneath.
Why does this keep happening? The answer is simple: Most success stories were edited fiction from the beginning. Media packages success as a heroic arc: effort → perseverance → growth → reward.
In reality, many success cases are built on combinations of:
- Capital power
- Political and social networks
- Idea or recipe appropriation
- OEM relabeling
- Franchise scalability
- Image construction
In other words, the stories consumed through media are largely unrelated to real mechanisms. As this gap widened, Korean society developed an implicit rule: “Any success myth must eventually be dug up.” And every excavation reveals the same truth: The structure of success is far more complex than it appears, and more than half of it depends on factors unrelated to individual effort.
[Beginners Mistake Edited Fiction for the “Standard Narrative”]
This is where the real problem begins. Beginner founders, creators, and entrepreneurs mistake these edited success myths for a “standard narrative.”
- “They succeeded from their first store…”
- “Some YouTubers blow up instantly…”
- “Someone succeeded despite $400,000 in debt…”
Comparison inevitably follows. And once comparison begins, anxiety explodes. 👉 Because one’s real life looks nothing like that narrative. Ten subscribers. Thirty views. Two customers. Faced with this reality, people label themselves as failures. But the issue is neither lack of effort nor lack of talent. The comparison baseline itself was fictional.
This leads us to a crucial conclusion:
Success is a non-reproducible story. Survival is a reproducible structure.
Those who believe in success myths constantly seek confirmation that their present moment aligns with the “correct narrative arc.” When that confirmation never comes, anxiety grows. But once you abandon success myths and adopt the perspective that “survival is something you design structurally,” anxiety diminishes.
Why? Because survival structures can be built directly through:
- Minimizing fixed costs
- Operational efficiency (especially labor cost reduction)
- Distributed cash-flow management
- Clear identity definition
- Stable daily routines that clear a 1% hurdle each day (Endorphin Philosophy)
Success is luck. Survival is skill. And skills can be designed. The moment you internalize this, you stop using other people’s dramas as your reference point— and the source of anxiety disappears.
(2) Why We Need Alternative Narratives
The narrative structures we rely on are far simpler than we think. Most people follow a single script: the Hero’s Journey, popularized by Joseph Campbell.
Problem → Call → Confusion / Suffering → External Advice → Transformation / Salvation
This narrative is intuitive and powerful. But for beginners, it amplifies anxiety.
Why? Because in this structure, conflict always comes from outside, and salvation also comes from outside. The protagonist recognizes their own insufficiency, yet lacks the power to overturn it alone. Survival is entrusted to an uncontrollable external world. When you view reality through this frame, anxiety is unavoidable.
[The Hero’s Journey Was Originally a “Traditional Industry Narrative”]
Historically, the Hero’s Journey fit older industrial structures very well. In manufacturing, agriculture, and logistics—industries centered on physical goods—problems led directly to real losses.
- Inventory rotted
- Machines broke down
- Production stoppages brought crises close to death
In such systems, it made sense for a CEO or leader to “take the bullet,” seek external help, and break through the crisis as a hero. In the physical economy, the Hero’s Journey was not metaphor—it was reality.
[Modern Intangible-Asset Industries Are Structurally Different]
In industries built on intangible assets—IT, AI, finance—a problem is not death.
- Fixed costs convert into assets
- Failures accumulate into know-how
- Losses do not immediately mean bankruptcy
Amazon, Netflix, and Tesla survived years of early losses because their fixed costs were not disappearing expenses, but accumulating capital. In this world, the Hero’s Journey does not apply. There is no death. No salvation. Only data accumulation and network flow. If you design a survivable structure in these industries, losses stop being existential threats.
[Restaurants Belong Again to the “Rotting Inventory” World]
Restaurants, however, resemble traditional industries.
- Inventory spoils
- Labor costs continue regardless
- Fixed costs drain every month
There is no IT-style “deathless structure” here. Beginners therefore must experience the full operational cycle. In this world, Hero’s Journey–style signal detection—seasoned intuition—is essential.
[Creators, Politicians, and Independent Researchers Belong Nowhere]
Their assets are entirely intangible: Knowledge, Speech, Video, Writing, Style, Narrative. As a result, beginner creators, politicians, and researchers face relatively little risk of physical bankruptcy as long as they maintain minimal living costs. Yet the media they consume still shows only the Hero’s Journey. So, when they view the world through the Hero narrative, they become anxious—waiting for one big hit, one viral moment, one decisive breakthrough. What they need is not a miracle, but a new narrative and a survivable structure.
[Let’s Acknowledge That the Collapse of Success Myths Is Itself a Fiction]
The recent wave of “debunked success stories” follows the same pattern. We mistake success cases for standard narratives, when in reality most are edited fiction. Chance is packaged as inevitability. Manufactured narratives are presented as best practices. Edited highlights circulate as if they were answers. Beginners believe these stories and try to force their own lives into the same script. Reality never follows. Anxiety grows. The starting point, then, is simple: admit that success myths are fiction. Once we do, anxiety begins to fade. By re-adjusting the narrative, we stop waiting for external “heroic events.”
[An Alternative Narrative: The Perspective of the I Ching]
There are many narrative structures in the world. One of them is offered by the I Ching. The I Ching is a book that explains how the world changes. Thinkers such as Carl Jung, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and Hermann Hesse were deeply fascinated by it because it offered a narrative completely different from the Western worldview.
The I Ching asks:
- What flow is the world currently in?
- Given that flow, how should my relationship to the world be structured?
It answers not with stories, but with 64 symbolic patterns. There is no death here. No hero. No dramatic reversal. What is strong becomes soft. What is soft becomes strong. Relationships shift. Flows continue endlessly. In this narrative, anxiety decreases—because failure is not a wound, but part of the flow. As long as life continues, failure can become medicine depending on time, position, and relationships.
[Example: What I Learned from Drawing a YouTube Hexagram]
While considering whether to start YouTube, I drew an I Ching hexagram using GPT.
The result was Water over Earth (Shi), line 3.
Meaning? : On the surface, it suggests closeness. At its core, it describes a relationship that quietly drags you down. The interpretation was straightforward: YouTube was not my main narrative. Deep immersion risked losing the larger flow.
So I changed strategy:
- Long-form blog archive = main engine
- YouTube = secondary promotion system
- Shorts = automated, minimal time investment
In other words, instead of “I must break through on YouTube,” I chose a narrative of “doing just enough, aligned with the flow.” (P.S. I have decided to stop doing YouTube. The I Ching hexagram that said it didn’t suit me was right. Sob.)
[tl;dr]
Anxiety does not come from lack of ability. It comes from narratives that do not match reality. Most success myths are edited fiction. Survival can be designed. Success is luck. Therefore, we must choose alternative narratives that fit our industry, profession, and position. The I Ching is one such alternative. When we understand flow, anxiety naturally diminishes.
3. Compensating for the Absence of Feedback : Building a Structure (Method 3)
When external feedback is absent, you must build an internal structure that prevents you from collapsing.
- Jig = a self-supporting structure that keeps you intact even when no feedback exists
- Jig = a self-fix mechanism that structurally blocks errors and uncertainty
(1) Securing Financial Stability: Portfolio Diversification
People often ask me: “It’s easy to say ‘keep a Zhuangzi-like mind,’ but how do you actually manage money in the early stages of a business?”
I am not an investment expert, and I don’t claim to know how to maximize returns. What I can share is how to allocate assets in a way that reduces anxiety. Every country expands public spending and political influence by issuing currency, while tolerating inflation to reduce the real value of debt.
As a result, prices inevitably rise. If your survival structure is tied to a single country, you become overly dependent on that country’s politics and central bank—accelerating anxiety.
I am personally experiencing this as the Korean won weakens due to failed currency management. The conclusion is straightforward: do not depend on any single nation, and think in long-term horizons.
What matters is holding two kinds of assets at the same time: assets that still look risky to the public but carry structural meaning, and assets with proven success formulas where the crowd invests with confidence. (Barbell strategy)
The first category is not gambling. It is not driven by extreme risk-seeking behavior. It requires a subjective but rational conviction in the asset’s role as an alternative system, not just a price bet. Bitcoin, despite being a global alternative asset is still poorly understood by most individual investors. Institutional capital, however, has already entered in large volumes. This is a market with clear information asymmetry.
The strategy, therefore, is straightforward. Allocate half to assets the public already trusts and actively buys — such as U.S. equities. Allocate the other half to assets that remain controversial but structurally significant — such as Bitcoin. And then, hold them for the long term. Once you start adjusting positions frequently or splitting capital too cautiously, the strategy collapses. At that point, you are no longer investing — you are simply reacting to noise. You gain neither meaningful returns nor long-term protection.
Here is how I structure mine:
- United States (Innovation Engine): 40%. This is where companies driving global growth are concentrated. About 20% in high-volatility Nasdaq ETFs, and around 20% in S&P 500 and dividend ETFs.
- Korea (Home-Country Money): 20% Held as cash equivalents in a mix of KRW and USD. This is used for insurance, telecom costs, and the “safety net fee” of maintaining ties to my home country.
- Bitcoin: 40%. Held as spot assets. My plan is to forget about this for twenty years.
The point is not short-term profit. It is building a structure that does not make you anxious.
The exact ratios don’t matter. What matters is building a structure that does not rely on a single country, currency, or industry.
(2) Reducing Fixed Costs: Actively Using AI as a Partner to Remove Technical Uncertainty
Reducing fixed costs early is obvious—but essential. If cutting fixed costs requires temporarily leaving a country, that option must remain open. At this stage, when personal and corporate finances are not yet separated, fixed-cost reduction is the strongest survival jig.
Technical uncertainty is a major source of fixed costs. This is where AI becomes a powerful partner. I am not particularly good with computers. Still, by following AI guidance, I built my own WordPress blog, improved sitemap structures, and configured robots.txt. Outsourcing this typically costs $500–$1,000, plus ongoing service fees. By building it myself, I optimized only what I could actually manage—and now I can handle updates and fixes independently.
Regarding content: I write the articles myself, but nearly all auxiliary work is AI-assisted. Using tools like InVideo and Google Notebook, I’ve largely automated translation, promo videos, and shorts. AI has become my best partner for a one-source–multi-use strategy. In the early stages, it’s important to place small bets across platforms—YouTube, Google, Medium, podcasts—to discover which one truly fits. Once that becomes clear, you can focus.
A crucial warning: GPT is not a solver that hands you answers. Many people try to outsource thinking, action, and responsibility to AI. That is a mistake. AI lowers barriers to language, technology, and coding, and helps explore broader alternatives. But thinking, asking the right questions, failing, and taking responsibility— that remains human work. Do not blindly trust it.
(3) Embodying Skills and Preparing for the Future
Early-stage businesses often feel quieter than expected due to low traffic. This is the ideal time to embody skills—languages, computing—and prepare future plans. I’ve already secured a budget to focus on building a writing archive throughout 2026. If that year doesn’t generate enough cash flow to support a woodworking shop, I plan to return to Korea and drive a truck to sustain myself. Truck driving offers relatively high ROI and pairs well with writing.
[See: 🚚 Why Restaurants Are Dying — and Why Logistics Keeps Winning in South Korea 🇰🇷]
Having this plan in place significantly reduced my anxiety. Because the future is uncertain, I also study embodied skills daily—Russian and Illustrator—little by little.
Skill embodiment is an endorphin routine that restores a sense of existence when external feedback disappears.
(4) Maintaining a 60% Rhythm (Sustainability)
When you’re unsure whether you’re on the right path, anxiety pushes you into a 120% sprint.
- 100% goal → 120% execution→ no feedback → burnout, exhaustion, self-blame
This often leads to buying feedback, which should never happen. Even if the goal feels massive, lower it. Trying to rush rarely works. A 60% goal executed at a 60% rhythm is optimal. It minimizes emotional drain and allows sustainability without burnout. Algorithms also trust suppliers who update steadily and consistently.
(5) Without an Internal Structure, You Become Addicted to Dopamine Marketing
We’ve now examined internal structures that help you endure periods without feedback. If you secure:
- 2–3 years of operating capital
- reduced fixed costs
- a diversified investment portfolio
- embodied skills (language, computing)
- a sustained 60% rhythm
Anxiety decreases noticeably. In the early stage, when no external signals exist, failing to design an internal jig leads directly into dopamine-driven anxiety loops. A jig is a survival structure. It replaces missing feedback with stability.
Without it, you try to prove you’re not wrong by increasing marketing spend — SEO courses, quick hacks, e-books. A bit of response might feel reassuring, but once anxiety is numbed by dopamine, it becomes difficult to escape. Identity blurs. Mental stability erodes. Archive accumulation suffers.
This perspective comes from my real experience running a business. We live in an era where anything slightly distinctive—food or content—is immediately copied. Haven’t you felt that hollow moment when you realize a short you enjoyed was copied from someone else, who copied it from someone else? Today, the suppliers who last are often the quiet ones—those with a clear identity that is difficult to replicate.
4. Conclusion
In this article, we explored practical responses to anxiety caused by not understanding the narrative. The alternatives were:
- Accumulating Experience
- Exploring Alternative Narratives (like the I Ching)
- Building Internal Structures (The Jig)
None of these are about accelerating success narratives. That part is out of my control. What is within my control is designing a survivable structure. When you feel uncertain, do not rush to buy traffic or manufacture signals. That can wait until algorithms clearly recognize your identity and your archive is established. Using dopamine to soothe anxiety early only drains money, dilutes identity, and creates obsession with novelty. I don’t know what specific game you are currently playing. But I hope this helps you design your own survival structure. We examined anxiety as dependence on the world and fear of uninterpreted narratives. In the next article, we will turn to physical anxiety.
Success is a story. Survival is a structure. Anxiety isn’t about ability. It comes from the wrong narrative. When anxiety rises, design structure—not stories.
If you enjoyed this article, you can support the project – thank you!