What I missed is that permission was already there, just smaller than I expected it to be. "Chai bro" is permission. A friend nodding along is permission. Someone repeating your idea back to you because it stuck with them is permission.

You don't get a committee. You get one person agreeing with you in a coffee shop, and that's enough to act on. The green light isn't a single big moment you're owed. It's a bunch of small ones you've been walking past.