Fear gets a bad rap.
We spend an awful lot of time and energy trying to get rid of it. We all do. There are books about overcoming fear. Therapists who help us manage our fear. Coaches who tell us to push through fear.
And I get it. Some fear really sucks. Like if you’re so scared that you can’t make a decision, you can’t take a risk, you can’t even get yourself to move — that’s a big problem and you need to get that taken care of.
The Fear I Don’t Want to Lose
But there’s another kind of fear that I’m a lot more worried about losing. And I honestly think you should be too.
It’s that little voice inside your head that says: “Oh shit, what if I screw this up?”
I know that voice. I know it really well. All too well.
Every company I’ve ever started, I was scared. Every time I’ve made a big career decision, I was scared. In fact, every time I take on something where I’m not completely sure I know what the hell I’m doing, I’m scared. It still happens.
There’s probably a little fear in me right now that I’m going to screw up talking to you here.
And the reason I’m having this entire conversation is because I used to think fear was the problem. I thought that someday I’d be experienced enough, successful enough, whatever enough, that the fear would finally go away.
But I don’t think that anymore.
In fact, now I think that the moment fear goes away is the moment when you should start worrying.
Let me explain.
