Always Be Scared, But Never Afraid
Last year, we had an phenomenal intern, David Newell, come and spent time with us at MiniCorp and help us ship some great products. He wrote this post during his internship. It was part one on his time here. Here’s the follow up to that post.
I feel completely honoured that David’s time with us at MiniCorp was so impactful. This guy is going to move on to do exceptional things. Watch out! — Brian.
Sitting in a café, celebrating my first full piece of work for MiniCorp, Brian asked “What’s the biggest thing you’ll take away from your internship at MiniCorp?”. I was stumped because I didn’t want to rattle off a stock answer: How to develop Android apps, a better understanding of the MVC pattern, or even anything broader like dealing with clients.
These are all valuable skills, but as times, technologies and careers change, those answers become less relevant. I wanted to choose something that would remain with me long beyond my three month stint. I asked for an hour to think about it, but that turned into three weeks and an essay.
“Failure is always an option.” Adam Savage
It’s probably best that I define my understandings of being scared and being afraid in this context, as I mention them a lot in the following paragraphs and their distinction is not at first obvious:
Scared: A fear that exists from not knowing the outcome of trying something new.
Afraid: The intangible restriction that stops you from acting on something new/different to overcome being ‘scared’.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent my first day trying to understand a single line of code. I was scared. Scared that I didn’t know what I was doing and scared by the greater responsibilities of the circumstances.
This fear brought with it a determination and onus to figure it out. When given responsibility you are not offered the opportunity to be afraid, you just have to try. Being scared is always a good thing. It’s what drives us to our best work and achieve what we thought we couldn’t. As long as we are not afraid to try. This feeling returned numerous times throughout the development process, seeing features implemented on other platforms and not having a clue how I’d replicate them.
Without my team relying on me and the responsibility given to me, I would’t even have tried. But each time I tried I was surprised by what I could achieve. Each time I was scared, but never afraid.
In ‘The End of Power’ by Moisés Naím, there are constant examples of how startups are innovating faster than big corporations. Many factors contribute to this distinction but part of it comes down to whose not afraid.
Big corporations are afraid to act on bold ideas despite plentiful resources because they fear loss of market share, displeasing share holders, product failures, etc. Whereas startups with small teams forego their right to be afraid as they have a compulsiveness to prove their ideas by trying what corporations won’t risk.
Brian always says that being scared sh*tless is the most exciting thing you can do. It means that you’re trying something new and challenging yourself. Knowing the outcome of anything in life is always less exciting than the anticipation building up to the result.
When you’re scared of the unknown outcomes you try your hardest to will the best one, which inevitably yields the best results. We’re all scared to try new things, but oftentimes it takes external circumstances (for example losing ones job) before we’re forced to ‘not be afraid’, and to try something new.
This extends everything from being afraid of your computers terminal to building your own startup. I want to be scared, but changing my mentality so that I’m never afraid to act and overcome those fears is something I’m only beginning to understand.
Failure is always an option, but trying hard is too. Perhaps a better mantra and certainly the biggest thing I’ll take from MiniCorp through my entire life is: Always be scared, but never too afraid to try.
