What holds you back from starting a blog, a new business, or any kind of venture that may, in the end, be hugely successful? Fear. You fear the unknown, the what could (or couldn’t be) and the chance it may not work.
You fear risk.
You don’t have all of the answers. You can’t completely control the outcome and guarantee success so you assume failure. You let some unknown entity out there scare you into not starting your next venture at the cost of something great!
Table of Contents
How I Just Started and See What Would Happen
It was fear that kept me in many different jobs over my career even though I always felt something wasn’t quite right. I’d watch all of these successful online business guys seemingly make a killing yet have all the freedom in the world and I wanted that bad.
But I was scared. I was scared of not being able to support my family and failing miserably (and it did happen once). But you know what? It’s been over 15 years now and I’m that guy! I’m that guy with the freedom and financial success!
I now have a team of awesome people helping me grow my business, ATA Learning. On top of that, I have many courses, eBooks, a published book, etc, that make up various passive income streams for me. Was I scared I’d be wasting my time, money, and effort on a lot of this stuff? Hell yes, I was!
I’m not gonna lie. This entrepreneur’s game isn’t without its hard times. You will fail sometimes.
I’ve:
- Spent hundreds of hours on a business that I couldn’t monetize and sold at a major loss
- Spent thousands of dollars on various financial investments that I ended up losing
- Spent dozens of hours on various courses that didn’t go anywhere or make any money at all
- Wrote eBooks that no one bought
But you know what? The projects that did take off took off well which made all of these ventures well worth my time overall. In hindsight, some of the projects that proved successful couldn’t have even been possible with previous failures.
The cliche of failure is the key to success is true!
Risk is the Monster Under Your Bed
When you were a kid, did you fear that a monster was under your bed? You might have been petrified to go to sleep at night dreading that some two-headed behemoth would come out and consume you in one bite.
My fear came from a scene in a movie called BeastMaster where some witches put glowing goo on the throats of unsuspecting sleepers which turned them into demons. 35 years later and I still remember that! It took me many months to not be afraid to go to sleep.
Is being afraid of nocturnal witches wandering around my bedroom while I’m asleep an unwarranted fear? Yep. But at the time, I was positive they’d get me the moment I closed my eyes! Looking back, I realized just how naive I was. That’s how I and many others fear the unknown.
We fear what may happen, no matter how unlikely, and let that crippling fear prevent us from taking action on anything unfamiliar.
“When you come into this world, you took a risk.”
There’s an awesome quote I heard recently that said “When you come into this world, you took a risk.” Although being born wasn’t of your own choosing, you were given that risk the second you came out. You are now at risk of dying! 😱
You could literally die at any moment but we don’t constantly worry about it. We live our lives and worry about important stuff like what celebrities are doing or what we’re going to eat for dinner. Why do we fear risk? We don’t think of it as an opportunity but rather a guarantee of failure.
Nothing ever great came with no risk. Just let John Goodman tell you from a scene in The Gambler.
Risk is Opportunity
Let’s change the narrative in our heads. Let’s start to think of risk as an opportunity rather than a potential failure. If financial riches are your thing, as John says, you can’t have “fuck you money” without risk. Risk is an opportunity to get rich, to help thousands of people, to get the freedom you’ve been looking for.
Risk is an opportunity to change your business, your career, and your life!
