Honestly I think the author wouldn't have such a crushing sense of inferiority if providing for his family wasn't an issue. I'm very serious about this -- few

Honestly I think the author wouldn't have such a crushing sense of inferiority if providing for his family wasn't an issue. I'm very serious about this -- few people can handle the Sword of Damocles[1] hanging above their hands, those impossibly high stakes, that not only are they intimidated but they're paralyzed. It's a deer in the headlights moment, except instead of being in an instant it's experienced over the course of days/months/years. Morbid fear of failure can be crippling, even if you're more than capable of completing the task, and failing so consistently -- in the case of the author -- can actually have a damaging effect on your capacity to do such work. You regress. How does one handle such situations? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles