I am awfully pleased for my friend Naomi, who made the front page of Digg yesterday with this post: What to do when you’re scared sh*tless. (Sphinn censored the name by dropping the last word, respectful asterisk and all. How sad is that? It’s also a study in what differentiates a great headline from a mediocre one.)
For those who will read anything that tells you how to get on the front page of Digg, she walks you through that too. She left out several instructions, however. Be smart, funny, relevant and fearless weren’t part of it. Add that stuff and you should have no trouble reproducing her results. Also, put a naughty word in the title. No one can resist that.
If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably scared shitless about something. You’re starting a new business. You’re starting a big project. You’re juggling a day job and a new business and a big project or two, plus a two-year-old. (Oh, wait, that would be me.) You need to make more connections than you’re making. You need more customers and you need those customers to spend more money, and it would be helpful if they were less of a pain in the ass.
It’s possible you also just like stock photography of monkeys.
Being scared is part of the price of admission. If you aren’t scared, you probably should crawl a little further out on that limb. Everything worth doing will scare the shit out of you.
One nice thing about not being 20 any more is I can look at all that fear and say, Oh, right, that’s just fear. It goes away. It may not be comfortable (actually it may feel a lot like being eaten by fire ants), but it does, in fact, go away.
Being remarkable is deeply scary. That’s why big dumb companies do such a crappy job at it. There are too many people involved who have to be willing to tolerate that discomfort, to feel their pulse pounding in their ears and that strange feeling in your scalp that suggests your hair might be starting to fall out.
So what are you doing lately that scares the crap out of you? Drop me a comment, we’ll cheer you on.
SONIA!!! That was so incredibly nice and smart and not spam for impotence medication! Please keep reminding me of the day job + business + projects + child. It makes me feel much less like jumping in front of a subway car.
Thank you. That was really, really cool.
I am loving what TypePad did with your comment. I was thinking, Wow, that is really hip and meta.
Sonia, I really enjoy everything you’ve written! It’s smart, sassy and perfect for this exact moment in the history of communication. Keep it up. The day is coming when you can tell the day-job to kiss-off, work insane hours at your own consulting biz and choose the projects you like. I don’t think the kid-juggling ever goes away. I’ve got 2 in college and 2 still at home and the college kids require the most juggling!
The best payoff is when you leave the day-job behind.
Love your post!
Being scared is the price of admission? What do you get for being terrified (or insane for taking on to many things).
2 years into my own business…upgrade to the product that generates 75% of my revenue, whilst renegotiating the distribution agreement and trying to launch a new product.
Bring it on.
@Dave, thanks for the encouragement! It always helps!
@David, I love it. Terrified & insane bring even better rewards than fear. I send a loud obnoxious WOOT in your direction.
I love all the really good advice that I always find here! Keep on keeping on!
(And have you thought of writing a book on this subject?)
Thank you so much!
I am actually in the process of putting together a marketing course for small business owners–starting with one target market but I hope to branch out by spring 2008. So thanks for asking! I will come here and tastefully promote the living hell out of it when it’s ready to roll.
I’m not working at a “real” job right now, having just relocated across the country for my wife’s job. When that course is ready let me know, and I’ll help you promote it. Or, rather, I’d like to learn about how to promote it!
The absence of fear is love. And it is the title of a short book describing the key ideas in A Course In Miracles. As a serial entrepreneur, political consultant, and recovering ad agency founder, I’ve learned the hard way that we obsess about our “busy-ness” at the expense of our wholeness. I think it was Gandhi who said that there is more to life than increasing its speed. Amen.