

Fear Is A No-No - prosa
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/05/fear-is-a-nono.html

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aaronblohowiak
From dune:

    
    
      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

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gommm
Out of the comments, I really liked the link to Seth Godin's post on the
lizard brain [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/quieting-
the...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/quieting-the-lizard-
brain.html)

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Entlin
This reminds me of this Felix Dennis essay:

If you want to be rich, first stop being so frightened
[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?pri...](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?print=yes&randnum=1274387208921)

It's an excerpt from his book "How to Get Rich" which has the distinction of
being a "how to get rich" book written by an actual billionaire.

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nostromo
This article is a bit trite. What I thought it would be about is a different
kind of upstart fear: fear that telling the world about your product will
cause competitors to steal your idea or approach. I think that balancing act
is more difficult than being afraid of failure.

~~~
hga
If I were evil, I'd point out that the East Coast attitude towards failure is
much less forgiving and therefore a NYC VC needs to put lots of focus into
alleviating it.

Although ... are unnecessary stealth startups based on fear of potential
competition more common on the East Coast? I'm all too familiar with that
concept, I just don't know if there's less of it in SV.

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BenoitEssiambre
I think the causal link is the other way. Fear doesn't cause failure,
impending failure causes fear and It's easy to be confident when it looks like
you're going to succeed.

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brlewis
Brad Feld and Fred Wilson are talking about different ways of handling the
same challenging situation. They have enough experience not to get causality
reversed here.

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brlewis
Quiet confidence comes naturally to me. Knowing when to speak aggressively is
the challenge. I don't think I'm the best leader -- yet.

~~~
henning
Cool story, bro

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brlewis
I'm responding to the part of the article where Fred opines that a balance is
needed, and quiet confidence is probably best. That's helpful to someone whose
imbalance is not being quiet enough. But you can be too quiet as well. I think
more information is needed to truly find balance.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
I think it also comes from the people that you are leading, the organizational
culture and the national expectations for behavior. I have a colleague that
responds best to aggressive speech, but another that communicates best one-on-
one in non-meeting scenarios. Communication can be hard for people who are
used to being precise in order to be understood -- sometimes being understood
isn't enough. Effective communication goes beyond being understood and extends
to the emotional and cultural aspects of the conveyance of the message. The
easier it is for someone to listen to you, the deeper your message will
penetrate. The problem is that "ease(message)" varies by individual.

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messel
FDR & Frank Herbert nailed this idea best.

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credo
Andy Grove: Only the Paranoid Survive

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JoeAltmaier
Fear has its use but cowardice has none. Mohandas Gandhi

