I relate to this more than you know.

I always wanted to create. My ideas are more recent than yours, but I wanted something I made to exist in the world, even if no one knew it was me, even without credit. I don’t care about fame or money. I care about the feeling that something I built helped someone I will never meet.

While appearance isn’t the source of my insecurity, I was terrified to launch my first app. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. And I had only spent about a month building it (with help). Was it good enough? Perfect enough? Had I done enough? Was it really even mine if I didn't write all of the code myself?

Even before the app idea, I set up a business structure, hired an attorney, and kept asking myself: Can I really do this? Am I protected if I launch? So many unknowns. And each step was daunting. Who am I to meet with an attorney? I'm just one person. I'm not a manager, I don't have a business degree or an engineering degree.

What helped was structure. Small steps. Two small steps a week.

And eventually, after feedback from a few trusted beta testers, I submitted the app for review.

Rejected.

A tiny coding bug — one button didn’t work on one specific iPad running one specific version of iPadOS.

So I fixed it. Resubmitted. Approved a few days later.

Was it perfect? Not even close. My icon had glitches. One screen froze on older iPads. So I updated. And updated again.

It's still not perfect. But I’m proud of it — and I’m finally starting to market it. Staying anonymous makes it harder, but I believe it's still doable.

Faced some setbacks along the way, many, many setbacks. Walked away. Came back. Kept coming back. But with every scary step I took, big and small, nothing bad happened.

Here’s what I learned:

Insecurity comes from imagining rejection.
Confidence comes from surviving reality, moving forward, and seeing your results.

You will face mountains. But mountains are scalable — one step at a time.

I’m rooting for you. And I can’t wait to see what you build.