Fear
Fear is one of the most basic human emotions and when controlled can be a hugely beneficial asset.
It is tough to grasp just how dictated your life is by fear until you conquer your fear.
An example that perfectly illustrates this is a story from when we first launched Quokka Brew (Quokkabrew.com) and we were ready to get our product stocked in a few grocery stores. I was absolutely terrified of talking to the managers/owners. I was so incredibly worried thinking about what am I supposed to say, what if they think I’m dumb, what if they say no. I was so frozen by fear that I delayed going into our first store for weeks. I just thoughts it was going to be this incredibly scary process and I didn't want to blow it. However, one day while Ofek and I were getting a sandwich at one of our target doors, I just blurted out to the manager “how can we sell a product here, we own a coffee company?” and he looked at me and just said “just bring it down tomorrow” and that is the story of how we got our first store.
There was a period where I let the fear control me, I was so afraid of jumping into the deep end that I stood frozen on the diving board until I realized it really is not that bad.
What is surprising is that once I realized that fear is many times irrational it has helped me to charge head first into challenges despite fears that exist. You should always be calculated, but you should never be fearful.
But, why should you get rid of your fear or work to fight your fears?
The main reason that I believe that fighting against fear is something that is hugely beneficial is that when you are scared or when you are living in a state of fear you are in the headspace to make calm, cool, collected decisions. Fearful decision making is reactionary (look at the crypto market, people are making fear-driven irrational decisions and they are going to regret it in a few months from now). In the heat of the moment when the pressure is on, your job as a team member (and especially when you are the leader of the team) is to make rational, level headed decisions, not irrational sporadic decisions.
Now I’m not saying that if you see a wild tiger walking down the street to get pet it, what I am saying is that you should not make emotion-driven decisions. If you see someone that you want to talk to, but you are afraid to go talk to them out of the fear that they might reject you, that is a dumb-reason not to talk to someone. Yea sure, they might reject you, but who cares. Your ego might be a little sore, but thats about it. What about the upsides?
People are always blown away by how many founders, executives, etc I know, and assume that I grew up in the CPG space. No, I’m just not afraid to talk to people, it literally is that simple. My connections and the people I know have gotten me in so many doors, and guess how much money it cost me to know them. Zero dollars. All it cost me was ignoring the fear in my head and just talking to them. And yes, along the way people have called me dumb, they have thought that I was a dumb kid that was bitting way more off than I could chew. Does it feel good when people think im dumb? No, but I’m not going to let some old industry talking head who has been selling random CPG products for longer than I’ve been alive get under my skin.
Life is a game, and if you don't play the game you're not going to win.
Take risks, have fun, ignore the naysayers.