“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of being Fearless when you are a Founder or part of a Startup. The crazy zig-zags, the euphoric highs and soul crushing lows can rattle the strongest among us. There are so many baggages that founders carry, I look at each one of them with an open heart, love and empathy. For I have found and stated my purpose several times on this blog. For the sake of repetition and completeness let me say it again
I will be a optimistic, caring, empathetic, hardworking and thoughtful individual. I will live the 7 Habits and aspire to realize the 8th habit. I will seek balance among empowering my mind, body, heart and spirit. I will put service to others above self. I will not judge people for their action and I will not gossip about people. I will defend those who are not present. I will seek to understand before being understood and I will think Win-Win in all my activities and interactions with people. I will smile and be happy about life. I will pray and be thankful for all the love and gifts that I have experienced in my life so far.
The group of people that I call my tribe are the Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs. I am forever at the service of my tribe, it has always been the mission and it will continue to be my mission. I have committed the rest of life to this mission. I do my best in every situation to help and facilitate the above mission. I believe this mission is purpose driven and something that I can aspire to live by every single day.
When I work with founders, some of them acknowledge this openness and transparency, others usually hide from it. I don’t know why, maybe I show the best in them that they themselves don’t see yet. Of course I usually do not let it bother me and the above statement is but an observation. When your effort and sacrifice is not appreciated, how long can you continue to give? well that is a tough question. I struggle with it a lot. I hope to bring discussions that creates a culture of openness and transparency in the Startup Community in Iceland. Being fearful of failure being one. I think fear is a good motivator but it is very poor companion. It can jolt you to action but the sense of calm, vision, mission and purpose must be your guiding light. You cannot motivate your team with Fear, you cannot convince investors if you are fearful. You will not be able to convince your customers to try your product if you are afraid.
Fear is the mind-killer, let it flow through you, become self aware and look inside yourself. Radical self enquiry and non-violent communication is the best way to get back on track when fear has derailed your thought process. Take it from someone who has been fearful and scared about many things, but I am open to acknowledge that this demon has visited me several times and I usually graciously bow my head and ask it to consume me. Usually it vanishes before my humility. I have written about being humble before. It is a good principle. For founders who are seeing success, get more humble when you see success, you will become a better human being.
