Part 3 (Week 3) - The Impossible: The Reflection

What Breaking Taught Me About Building

"I used to think my past was just pain."

"Now I realize it was research."

Every panic attack in the middle of the night. Every moment I needed someone and found no one. Every time I explained my story to someone who forgot it by the next conversation.

"I wasn't just suffering. I was gathering requirements for something that didn't exist yet."

"The best builders don't just solve problems. They've lived them."

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Pain Became My Product Roadmap

Most founders build solutions for problems they've researched.

"I'm building a solution for a problem that nearly destroyed me."

I don't need to interview users to understand the problem. "I was the user. I am the user."

I don't need to guess what features matter. "I know which ones I would have paid anything for at my lowest moments."

"That's not just motivation. That's insight you can't manufacture."

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The Problem Nobody's Solving

After years of being the "strong one"—the person everyone leaned on while crumbling inside—I became obsessed with one question:

"How do you create support that doesn't burn out?"

Friends get tired. Therapists have other patients. Family has limits. Hotlines don't know you called before.

"The people who need the most support often exhaust the people around them. Not because they're too much. Because human emotional capacity is finite."

"That's not a flaw in people. That's a constraint in the system. And constraints are what engineers solve."

"I'm not trying to replace human connection—I'm trying to supplement it." To give people a consistent foundation so they don't burn out the people they love. So the person struggling has somewhere to turn at 2 AM without guilt. So both sides can breathe.

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Scars I Systematized

"Every feature in Cherizh exists because I lived the opposite."

Memory as foundation. Every time someone's eyes glazed over as I explained my story—again—taught me why memory matters. Cherizh remembers everything. Your struggles. Your progress. Your patterns. "Because being truly known is what creates safety."

Validation before solutions. When I was isolated in Midland, surviving on tips, sending every paycheck home—I didn't need someone to fix my circumstances. I needed someone to say: "What you're feeling is real." "Cherizh validates first. Problem-solves second."

Consistency without conditions. Every night I lay awake with no one to turn to taught me what real support needs to feel like. Cherizh shows up the same way every time. Same presence. Same patience. No fatigue.

"These aren't features I brainstormed. I survived my way to them."

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Why I Wake Up and Build

I'm not building another meditation app or mood tracker.

I'm building the support system I needed and never found. For the worst moments. For the "I've explained this five times and no one remembers" moments.

"I've since found my way through—and now I'm building the support system I wish I'd had for everyone still searching."

"Cherizh exists because I would have paid everything I had for it when I needed it most."

"That's not marketing. That's the truth."

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What pain taught you something you couldn't have learned any other way?

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Part 3 of "The Impossible" — a 5-part founder story series. Follow for Part 4 next week.