i’ve spent most of my life trying to adapt.
to be good. to fit in. to stay small.

not anymore.

i won’t shrink to fit systems that were never built for people like me.

i’m here to build new ones.

for all of us who were told we’re too much.
or not enough.

i see you.

now i write about how to survive self-employment as a sensitive soul.

about how to quit systems that burn you out.

and how to build a business that feels like home.

ironically, it was linkedin that taught me self-acceptance.

this wild west of white privilege, where startup-bros ride their porsche-powered egos into plastic sunsets.

turns out: something magical happens there, if you dare to be real.

and being real connected me to people who felt just as much.

i never really fit in.

dropped out of school.
quit every job i ever had.
somehow made it to university –
only to drop out of three different courses.

no matter where i went or what i did, i always felt out of place.

or i just couldn't keep up.

later i was diagnosed with anxiety.
social phobia.
adhd.
"adjustment disorder"

what a slap in the face.

to me, these were symptoms of being highly sensitive in a world that never made space for it.

i lived with the belief that something was fundamentally wrong with me.

“man up.”
“stop being so dramatic.”
“pull yourself together.”

by the time i was 11, i was clinically depressed.

as a highly sensitive, queer kid in a radically insensitive, patriarchal world, my survival strategy was adaptation.

and i got really good at it.
until it broke me.

i’ve never been good at “being myself.”

grew up in what we called a “notwohnung” – a temporary shelter in one of the wealthiest cities in germany.

cradled in rootlessness, migration shame and quiet inferiority.