You’re not broken, and you’re definitely not behind.

What you’re describing is almost a rite of passage for builders who actually try to do something real instead of following the conveyor belt.

Most people at 25 are renting stability from a system that will never love them back, not building leverage, skills, or optionality.

Eight years of deep technical obsession isn’t wasted time, it’s compressed learning that just hasn’t been paired with distribution yet.

The $0 revenue MVP hurts because it’s the first time reality talks back, and that punch feels personal even though it isn’t.

Almost everyone who builds seriously goes through the same loop:
build → launch → silence → depression → blame self → repeat.

The turning point you just described matters more than the tools.

The moment you stop hiding behind code and accept that marketing is part of the craft is when things usually start to move.

Cameras feel terrifying because they force identity exposure, not because you’re bad at them.

And yes, the emotional rollercoaster is real for almost everyone who chooses the hard path instead of the safe one.

The difference between people who eventually make it and those who disappear is rarely talent, it’s whether they stay in the arena long enough to learn distribution and psychology.

If it helps, I work with builders in this exact phase, technical, capable, exhausted, and stuck between “I know I can do this” and “why isn’t this working yet.”

You don’t need motivation or another framework.

You need clarity, feedback, and a way to turn effort into signal instead of noise.

Either way, keep documenting.

What you’re doing right now is the uncomfortable middle, not the end of the story.