Image Credit: Hayley Young
We ALL experience fear in our life.
How we handle fear determines our destiny.
But what is fear?
Fear is an emotion caused by a threat, danger, pain, etc. whether the threat is REAL or IMAGINED.
You may recall believing that there's a monster in the closet as a kid?
I know I did. I had nightmares about it. And as it turns out, it was all in my head.
So why was I scared?
And HOW do we experience fear?
Fear starts in the brain, specifically in the amygdala. This then triggers a chain reaction through our body to ultimately make adjustments for the best defense or flight reaction.
It's a defense mechanism, and in emergencies, it can help us stay alive.
While we should be thankful for it, we need to be able to recognize these internal reactions for what they are and not allow them to dictate our lives because most of the time, it’s all in our head!
Just like the monster in the closet.
But unlike the monster in the closet, fear doesn't go away in our adulthood.
Sure, we may not be afraid of monsters, but we become afraid of an even bigger, and uglier monster - Failure!
And as it turns out, fearing failure is the biggest barrier from achieving our dreams!
Just ask Auth0 Co-Founder and CEO, Eugenio Pace. Founding a failing startup early on in his career in his native country of Argentina, left a bad taste in his mouth.
Too afraid to start another company at the time, he decided to go the corporate route. He landed a job as a consultant with tech giant, Microsoft, and moved to the states, landing in Redmond, Washington. It was a comfortable job.
After nearly a 13 year run, Eugenio sort of went through a mid life crisis and when he turned 42-years-old, he recalls being happy but not entirely fulfilled. He had a thought experiment and asked himself the following:
"If I die tomorrow, would I regret anything?"
And at that moment, he knew it was time to embark on a new venture.
Auth0 was born.
Fast forward 6 years and Auth0 is now valued at over $1 Billion!
The fear of leaving his prestigious, comfortable job and heading into the uncertainty of building a startup was all in his head!
As he describes it, "failures are NEVER a negative thing. They are information. Trying new things and so called failing is part of life. The biggest things I regret in life are not things I've tried and failed at but things that I SHOULD have done... The fear of leaving Microsoft was all in my mind!"
Do you allow the fear of failure dictate your decisions?