Fear of Failure

Seth Godin – “What To Do When It’s Your Turn”

In the industrialized world, the world of driveways, parkways, dishwashers, and dumbwaiters, a rational fear for our individual survival isn't even in the top ten. Wild animals don't threaten our existence, the diseases that were rampant a century ago do not exist, and crime in our biggest cities is more rare than ever before.

So what is there to be afraid of?

Failure.

Our schools, our marketers, and our culture reinforce this fear daily. The heartbreak of psoriasis, the humiliation of underarm odor, but most of all, the utter horror of trying and failing.

Failure is almost never as bad as we fear it will be, but it's our fear that we feel, not the failure.

Worst of all, we've so amplified our internal narrative that we can't help but associate freedom with failure.

And so our fear of failure transfers effortlessly into fear of freedom.

Consider our avoidance of feeling tired. If you're unwilling to be tired, unwilling to feel fatigue in your legs, you can't run a marathon. Successful marathon runners haven't figured out how to avoid being tired, they've figured out where to put the tired when it arrives. If you're not willing to be tired, you can't run.

If you're not willing to imagine failure, you're unable to be free.

In just a few generations, we’ve gone from "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” to "The fear we feel is the fear of freedom."

This book is not just fabulous; it is mind bending and eye opening at the same moment. We encourage you to put it on your “buy now” list. Thank you Seth Godin…hundreds of times over…the passage above is page 63 in his book. As we told our team when we read them this page at Saturday’s team meeting, there are rarely new words invented. What is constantly evolving is authors’ ability to use words in more meaningful ways. Godin is one of those authors.