Emily McDonald

I graduated early for my PhD with my master's and moved across the country.

I had 30,000 Instagram followers.

I had no reason to believe I was going to have almost 2 million now.

I just did it.

And I was like, I was delusional.

I was like, I'm just going to do this.

But it was that delusional level of belief that motivated me to do it.

And I actually remember when I was first starting out, I had met someone.

And this person told me, I know that you're going to make it because of the belief that you have.

I know now that all of the successful people, when you hear them speak, what do they all have in common?

It's the belief that they have in themselves and in their dreams.

And so I think that sometimes it is delusional.

Because your reality, your current reality isn't reflecting to you what it is that you're going after.

And some kind of mindset that I've been, you know, living in recently is like ignore reality, move like it's already yours.

And that can seem delusional to a lot of people.

But I think it's necessary because if you allow, you know,

present setbacks or your present circumstances to deter you or discourage you, then you'll never make it.

And so in those moments where things aren't going your way and maybe you're not getting the results that you want, maybe your videos aren't going viral, like I had all these videos not doing whatever, and I still believed.

It was crazy.

Looking back, I really was delusional.