“Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.”, said the great chef Auguste Gusteau in Ratatouille. So far, so good but somehow pretending to be fearless didn’t feel right for me anymore in the last weeks. Being fearless and daring new things in times of great uncertainty is easier said than done, my dear Gusteau. Putting up a heroic masquerade just doesn’t take you very far in times of crisis. So, I thought, I might as well give it a try and openly address my fears (I guess everybody has them – even the great Gusteau).
I know this involves the risk of vulnerability but I think it is very well worth it. Although I have spoken about failure culture in countless talks over the past years, the fear of failure has been stalking ever since I started my entrepreneurial journey. Even more so when taking a different route in the midst of a pandemic. And simply convincing myself to be fearless felt just like whistling in the dark. The fear of failure prevails no matter how many stories of brave women and men I have read. The key is not to strive for the absence of fear, but to acquire the ability to persist in spite of it. That is what entrepreneurial courage is actually about.
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