Fear as Fuel for Fabricating a Fortune

Risk and fear often appear intertwined, but truly they operate independently. And the distinction between the two is vital, else we never identify the chicken or the egg and remain a victim to the actual perpetrator — fear.

For starters, risk manifests in three dimensions while straddling a space of make-believe. It can be something experienced and something we worry about.

Fear on the other hand lives strictly in the imaginative world. It’s a shapeshifter without any visible stickiness. An acronym I learned decades ago sums it up well: False Events Appearing Real.

The author David Perell provides good insight when he wrote about the transition of phases for molecules. I believe fear and risk share a similar relationship, where risk is the object and fear is the change agent.

Let me explain.

Metamorphosis

We’ve all experienced this in the kitchen: ice melts into water, and with the assistance of heat, transforms again into a gas. The same molecule, three different forms.

Fear operates the same way, except it’s not the actual molecule, it’s the catalyst forcing the transition.

We should not concern ourselves with avoiding risks. It is present just as water is plentiful, and assumes several forms. Rather, we should devise a plan that assumes risks and counters worst-case scenarios, but focus our energy on converting fear into faith.

Easier said than done. I know.

Fear is an intruder who enters without knocking. It’s the voice that we hear in our head, the one that sometimes wins without a physical battle occurring. It often feels elusive and more keen to spiritual warfare.

If you’re doubting this, live a few decades as a taxpayer, parent, and spouse.

Teachers

What I discovered was the dynamic nature of this emotion.

Parental, society, money, wealth, well-being, and longevity are frequent fear subjects. And worse, social dynamics support many fear mechanisms.

For instance, I fear for my son’s future self and success. Who doesn’t?

Socially, who desires not to be respected and accepted?

And in the case of money, where does it stop and where does it end? Will there be enough? Will my industry sustain my career? How about social security?

I spent a few decades trying to defeat fear, only to succumb to a life lesson: you can’t beat the teacher.

Lemons + Lemonade

Here’s a personal story.

After a decade with a company, I was summoned upstairs. In ten minutes, my ten years of sacrifice and service were eliminated from the org chart. A mindset of certainty would have anchored me to resentment and self-righteousness. But doubt created space to evaluate my relevance to a company that we, the leadership, struggled to redefine and repurpose. I foresaw this meeting taking place. The COVID pandemic was the change agent forcing the transition.

The result: doubt spurred an opportunity for contemplation, which prepared me to face reality and embrace humility, only to bring me back to the zone of opportunity.

I listened to fear like a coach, and someone else’s lemons turned to lemonade.

Fear as Fuel

Four years after this experience, a client recommended a book about the transition phases of fear.

The author, Patrick Sweeney, is a fear guru. He offers insight into using fear as fuel.

“There are only two ways to make decisions: out of fear or out of opportunity. When you make a decision out of fear, it almost always leads to regret. When you make a choice based on opportunity, it will always lead to learning something and getting closer to your goal. When your amygdala — that small gland at the base of your brain — hijacks your body, it wants to make every decision based on simply surviving. The amygdala always wants to fight, flee, or freeze. It will do whatever it thinks gives you the better chance of living to send your gene pool on to the next generation. Fear only helps you to survive, opportunity makes you thrive.”

I love it when life conspires to connect our experiences of struggle with the documented tension lived by others. This transition of phases allowed me to see through a bigger lens and realize that our experiences belong to us, but are also shared.

And fear ties into my money story. Certainly so.

However, I am overly optimistic about financial planning and wealth strategies simply because I believe in possibility, evolution, and fear conversion.

The historical record is complex yet clear with patterns of wisdom.

Our current monetary system and the free-enterprise market have created more wealth in the last one hundred years than in any previous period of human history.

Sure, there are bad stories. Many. But the original thesis and the evolution of a free enterprise system never intended to eradicate the negative altogether. In fact, it demands that we live in the mud and the muck alike, falling upward and failing forward.

What is truly astounding is the fact that world markets are made up of many wholes. What it takes to bring a product or service to the world is a thousand people doing a thousand things. Think about this for a minute.

Courage

If we use Fear as Fuel we learn to focus our efforts on things within our control. We also learn that courage does not live in a vacuum. It requires fear to exist.

And while we cannot determine the outcomes of markets or financial plans, we can get busy authoring a story that aligns with our aspirations and our needs.

Find your fear, and you will find your courage. Courage fuels purpose, and purpose is central to any plan.