An Entrepreneur’s Biggest Fears (And How To Conquer Them)

By: Samantha Harrington

With Halloween approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about fear. When I was a little, costumed kid I was afraid of ghouls and masks and the way the cold fall breeze rustled through the trees. Now I’m afraid of much more mundane things like failure and running out of money. Those fears are very boring and adult – and they’re more terrifying than any Halloween ghost floating through the neighborhood. They’re also pretty common.

In 2015, a group of researchers compiled a review of scientific studies on fear and entrepreneurship. The review concluded that fear is a major psychological barrier to entrepreneurship.

Fear, the review also noted, is a diverse and complex emotion and though it can prevent entrepreneurs from taking necessary risks when it’s properly managed fear isn’t debilitating.

In the year since my teammates and I founded our media company, we’ve learned to balance fear and risk. We still get scared (a lot) but we’ve never let that fear stand in the way of innovation or progress.

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