The Unlikely Benefits of Fear

Power, Push, and Achievement.

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“I never want to be poor again.”

I’ve heard that phrase from more people than you might think. This phrase and others like it, there are countless things that people never want to be, things they never want to worry about, or places they don’t want to be in life. 

Brass tacks: these are things that people fear… but, from my seat, it’s good fear.  

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The things that people never want to have to worry about, are kept in their minds as an unending source of fuel and motivation. Stronger at first, but sitting there still…the flames of it rarely go out entirely. It gnaws at them in the back of their mind. Trust me — I’ve worked with people worth hundreds of millions of dollars who *still* think about it. 

Poverty can produce some monstrous entrepreneurs and professionals…people with an unending endurance for the work. And there are plenty of things that people “work against” in their lives — against poverty, against control, against their neighborhoods, against living in a parent’s shadow — and they’re all strikingly motivational. 

I wonder if there are things perhaps you are working against as well. The things that you might never speak out loud, but they form a clear motivator for why you work so hard — why you’re willing to put everything you have into your work. 

Instead of letting those things hold you back, let’s talk about why working against something can be so powerful, how you can utilize the fears we carry — and how to sustain the fire when things get comfortable.