Tomorrow I will start a new series about the 25 Traits of a Fearless Entrepreneur.
In this series I will share some of my own secrets of fearlessness in business, which of course will require that I reveal the “story behind the story”, including some of my own personal trepidations.
In this picture, I am jumping off a 13 1/3 foot telephone pole with a small wooden disk the size of a 12 in pizza. I was at a program called Sportsmind with a bunch of my peers from Sabre. The year was probably somewhere in the late 90s, as I was the acting President of a division called Capture.
The story behind the story here is my fear of heights. Climbing up the small pieces of wood, strategically nailed on the telephone pole was tough enough. I may have even closed my eyes. But getting to the top and having to turn around and jump out what I think was about 6 feet to the trapeze was the real trick.
After catching the trapeze (yes I did!), I was lowered down on the lines that you see attached to my belt, by my peers. So there was a distinct element of trust involved.
So it is with entrepreneurialism. Facing your trepidations (aka fears), putting one foot in front of another and then just going for it is the story of how you succeed. Trusting those around you to catch you if you fall and celebrating when you get down and cheering you on when you say that you want to “do it again!”.
I’m in the process of building my second technology company. The first company was a “spectacular failure” and I will certainly touch on that story as a part of the 25 part series on the traits of a fearless entrepreneur.
Thanks to Rebecca Happy @rebeccahappy who is the catalyst for this series. She interviewed me today on her video blog on this very topic.
So as usual, stay tuned.