Underestimated: The Surprisingly Simple Shift to Quit Playing Small, Feel the Fear, and Move Forward Anyway

It’s all been done. I can’t start until it’s perfect. What if the critics come? What if I start and then can’t follow through? What if my voice doesn’t matter? What if I don’t actually matter? What if it’s already too late?

Sound familiar? Do you find that year after year you stay stuck in the same tired, broken scripts fear uses on all of us?

It’s time for a wake-up call. Because so often when faced with the choice between creating nothing and creating failure, we choose nothing. Another year goes by. The clock goes on ticking. And the world is worse for our absence. It’s time to move from stuck to start.

This book does the heavy lifting to dismantle all the lies fear uses, move you out of an endless spiral of your own excuses (not to mention other people’s opinions), and bring you right up to a threshold of no return--this place where we become people who feel the fear and move forward anyway. With equal parts powerful prose and tactical action steps, Underestimated will become the essential go-to field guide for anyone who is ready to once and for all quit playing small.

Mary Marantz is the bestselling author of Dirt and Slow Growth Equals Strong Roots, as well as the host of the popular podcast The Mary Marantz Show. She grew up in a trailer in rural West Virginia and was the first in her family to go to college before going on to Yale for law school. Her work has been featured on CNN, MSN, Business Insider, Bustle, Thrive Global, Southern Living, Hallmark Home & Family, and more. She and her husband Justin live in an 1880s fixer-upper by the sea in New Haven, Connecticut, with their two very fluffy golden retrievers, Goodspeed and Atticus. Learn more at MaryMarantz.com.