This is a story about entrepreneurship and innovation. It’s one that’s rarely told.
But first, it’s a story about a little boy and one of the hardest times in his life. And why, in one form or another, we all have to face the same questions he did, but don’t always know it.

The Heart of the Matter

I was six. The room was small. A few toys lay scattered on the floor, pulling for my attention. Somehow, I knew this moment mattered. It felt more grown-up, and the toys would have to wait.

My dad sat next to me on the bed. He was gentle, yet firm. He was the kind of father who looked you in the eye and said, “I love you, son.”

He opened the Bible and read a passage to me. It became my passage. From Isaiah 43: “I have called you by name; you are Mine.” It spoke about value. About being precious. About belonging to God.

A few days later, my parents got into the car with my brother and drove to another country, leaving me behind with another family so that I could attend school, as there weren’t any in the rural area where my dad was working. It would be a year before I saw them again.

Over time, I’ve come to understand the value of that moment.

Most people don’t notice the questions underneath their lives – the quiet demand for answers. I was pulled straight into them. Forced to reflect, to answer, and finally settle on what I believe is true.

We spoke on the phone, but I didn’t feel my mother’s embrace for a long time. Years later, as a parent myself, I can now understand and feel the pain of the moment from both sides.

You are valuable – You belong.

After working with many entrepreneurs through fear and insecurity, through self-doubt and anxiety, and through the exhausting need to prove yourself when you absolutely believe you must prove yourself, I’ve found something consistent at the centre of successful and grounded entrepreneurs. Two foundational truths:

You belong.
And you are valuable.

It’s funny how we believe that innovation is about value creation but rarely think about the value being created inside of the person. Deep in the mind of the innovator.

These two truths – or, if you prefer, these beliefs – create within entrepreneurs the freedom to explore, to be confronted with rejection and to assess value from different perspectives, without the need to review their own. It creates stability and freedom.

Without these answers, we find ourselves in a sea of doubt. We stand, we sink, we swim, and then we sink again, trying desperately to keep our heads above water.

Let me explain.

The Engine behind Value Creation

Imagine for a moment that your mind is always running queries, trying to interpret what is happening to you. Meta-cognition is the next layer of thinking: noticing how you’re thinking and choosing what to do with it.

Innovation demands that kind of awareness, because uncertainty is constant. When self-confidence is unbalanced, you don’t just feel shaky; you interpret reality differently – your meta-cognition functions with a bias. You dismiss good feedback, inflate risks, or cling to the explanation that best protects your identity.

Self-confidence sits at the centre of any entrepreneur or innovator’s operating system. Every day, entrepreneurs have to instil trust: with shareholders, employees, customers and countless other stakeholders.

It’s a word we use often but rarely understand. What actually makes self-confidence strong or weak?

At the heart of entrepreneurial self-confidence are three concepts: self-esteem, self-efficacy, and locus of control. Like Russian Matryoshka Dolls, each layer covers another. The deeper the layer, the more powerful the belief. At this level – this almost anatomic level of human psychology – we are really talking about beliefs. About what we hold to be true.

I’ll leave locus of control for another time. Not because it isn’t important, it is, but because there’s an even deeper belief underneath it. And it’s worth dwelling on with a little curiosity.

At the centre of our beliefs is something like an engine. It’s always running. Always asking us questions, often without us noticing. And it’s constantly being fed answers that keep it producing energy. Some people describe this energy in vague, mystical terms. A simpler word for it is motivation.

The engine of self-esteem asks two main questions:
Do I belong?
And am I worthy?

The answers to those questions act like fuel for the soul.

When the answers are not there, when you don’t feel valued or that you belong, the engine can stall, or even sputter to death. And yet, here is where the metaphor is weak, because the engine can also rev itself into overdrive and burn the motor out.

The Matryoshka Dolls of our Soul

Here’s why.

Self-efficacy, the outer layer is our belief in our ability to behave to a certain standard. To persuade a customer. To build a product. To solve a problem. To perform.

Self-esteem, the deeper inner layer, is different. If our self-esteem is unstable, if the answers it receives are not sound, it feeds us back one of two lies: either that something isn’t worth doing at all, or that our worth depends entirely on doing it well enough to be accepted.

This is where things derail.

Entrepreneurs who can’t answer the questions of self-esteem often swing between extremes. Working harder than anyone else. Or feeling that getting out of bed isn’t worth it at all. That back-and-forth saps energy. Not just from them, but from everyone around them.

When I can’t answer the question that drives the engine, I start needing others to answer it for me. I need validation. I need acceptance. I need to know—no, be sure—that I belong. That I’m worth something to someone. They must tell me. Or show me. Give me proof that I have value.

The Power of Reflection

And so the engine keeps churning. Just as it did for the six-year-old boy watching his parents drive away. The boy who didn’t understand how the people he belonged to, the people he believed would give everything for him, could leave him behind.

I’d like to tell you that this little boy was fine. He wasn’t.

Other kids thought it was silly that he cried when there was “nothing to cry about.” But the boy kept reading the passage his father had given him. Again and again. At night, when others were asleep. During the day, when sadness crept in. He read it through the eyes of a six-year-old. Reflecting on it – believing it to be true.

Believing there was a God who valued him. Who he belonged to.

And deep in the engine of his soul, he began feeding answers back to the questions:
I am valued.
I belong.

I’d like to tell you that the six-year-old no longer asks those questions. But you know the truth. You still do. I still do.

The questions never really go away. What matters is knowing the answers – and letting them in.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about entrepreneurship and innovation. It’s less about the business model, the product, or the brand.

It’s more about you.
The questions you ask.
And the answers you live from.

Wybrand Ganzevoort is the author of the Metapreneurial Mindset, a practical guide to the person behind the business model.