A healthy dose of fear.

I have something to admit. Professionally, I operate in a constant state of fear.

Fear, that my past achievements are not indicative of my future success.

That my knowledge will become less relevant; my skills, obsolete; my network disinterested.

That the work will dry up and that the money will stop flowing.

I used to let that fear control me - avoiding existential disaster, no matter how rational, became a full-time job in my twenties.

It influenced my decisions, my relationships. It colonized my mind and soaked up my time.

And then, after one particularly harmful, two month stretch of late-night office hours, excessive Uber Eats and other debauchery, I decided to flip the script.

Fear could be a spectrum.

At one end, it depletes our confidence, it builds anxiety, it hinders our ability to make decisions and it contributes to poor habits.

At the other, it’s a driver, it keeps us diligent, it grounds us in reality. It allows us to make calculated decisions, to more accurately judge others and judge ourselves. It perpetuates successful habits.

Today, my fears motivate me.

I cultivate them to avoid complacency.

I embrace them to benchmark my own abilities and to bring perspective to my decision making.

I acknowledge them to avoid unhealthy assumptions in others.

If taking risks is a defining characteristic of entrepreneurs, it means that some degree of fear is part of the job description.

It’s how we choose to look at our fear that defines our ability to persevere. ?

Perhaps it is one of the secret ingredients to our longevity.