I believe that every single thought you have throughout your journey matters. This means that despite the negative thoughts, the burnout, and the crippling self-doubt, you just need to keep going.

A wise hacker once said:

I would be lying if I said I was any different. Even during the good months, I still feel bad. It's that classic, sinking feeling of imposter syndrome:

• "What if I'm not good enough?"

• "What if that was just luck?"

• "What if it all ends here?"

In every single occasion that I felt like that, I was able to push through it by simply keeping going, literally. There were times I thought I had found my last vulnerability ever, then next day I find a crazy one, it just happens.

Outcome Dependence

Most of the time, we judge our entire skill set based on the last 60 days of silence, ignoring the 10 months of massive success.

As the year ends, you might feel like you didn't do much. Maybe it's been slow the last two months, so you start to doubt yourself.

But what about the previous 10 months? What about all the hard work you put in?

This feeling is called "outcome dependence." Where we often attach our self-worth to whether we found a bug today.

Surround yourself with the right people

Since one of the most difficult things in bug bounty isn't only finding the bug; but also to simply keep going, it's important to have the right people around you.

You should always try to be surrounded by those who cheer you up, help you keep going and push you to be better. Be around those who make all of it fun!

I don't mean to imply that you should only have positive thoughts. On the contrary, it means acknowledging the doubt, the frustration, and showing up anyway.

Those negative thoughts are a part of the process. They are a sign that you care and that you're pushing your own boundaries.

Learn from your mistakes

There is a very good chance that, at some point in your journey you will make mistakes and feel burned out. Even if everything seems to be going well.

Although it can be very difficult to recover from the burnout, it's important to remember that it's a natural part of the process, every person experiences. The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is the ability to recover from it.

You always have a decision to make, it's up to you to keep going.

The "I've Hacked Everything" Illusion

We've all been there. You're deep into a program. Weeks, maybe months, have slipped by. You’ve tested everything you planned to test. Now, you're hitting a wall. Every endpoint feels familiar; every feature seems locked down.

This is when the illusion creeps in.

When you spend that much time on a target, it's easy to feel like you've seen it all. You've mapped the attack surface you're comfortable with, and you're coming up empty. It’s tempting to close your notes and think, "This program is secure."

But most of the time, silence isn't a sign that the program is bulletproof, it's a sign that you need a different perspective.

If you feel this way, step away. Go for a walk, reset, and come back with a fresh mind. That wall you're hitting isn't the end. It just means you have seen everything that your current methodology allows you to see.

The Reward of Depth

Every time I’ve felt like I knew everything about a target, I ended up finding a new vulnerability, or at the very least, a useful new gadget, just by sticking with it.

I remember a private program where I submitted four vulnerabilities in a single day. Naturally, I felt tapped out. I thought, "There is no way there is anything left here."

But I decided to show up anyway. I sat down and just kept looking.

And as you can guess, I found more. In fact, they were even more creative than the first batch. I found bugs that no one else had touched, simply because I forced myself to think differently about the features I had already looked at.

I didn't find them because I was lucky. I found them because the hours I invested gave me a deep understanding of their specific attack model.

Your goal should always be to know the product better than the developers who built it.