2 biggest fears of starting a business

and how I overcame them

I was asked a question on Yabbly, and decided to publish my answer as a post.

1. Fear of being underprepared

Diving head-first into a fin-tech startup, I felt that my academic background in international relations and security strategy provided with me with few practical business skills. This fear quickly proved to be well founded. However, it also became extremely useful because it compelled me to acquire the missing skills very quickly.

I think that entrepreneurs have to be inquisitive by nature. But curiosity is not enough — an entrepreneur needs a system to constantly improve and, at times, quickly accelerate their learning. A “healthy” fear that ignorance will lead to poor choices and missed opportunities is a great motivator in this respect.

2. Fear of responsibility

When starting the business, I felt like I was about to lead a small boat, with a few great crew members who left their jobs to embark on this adventure and limited investor-issued supplies, into very uncertain and hostile waters. At the time, I felt the weight of personal responsibility for the validity of the idea, destiny of the venture, combined and individual success of our team, and for the money entrusted to us by our angel investors. I was definitely afraid to disappoint everyone involved, plus I had personal liabilities that made starting a business even more stressful.

Two things helped me overcome this fear:

a. I realized that it wasn’t all on me (or about me) and that responsibility as well as expectations could and should be shared among team members.

b. I understood that responsibility is an inseparable part of leadership. With time and some practice, my fear of responsibility turned into a strong sense of commitment. Once I began to develop this sense, I started to look for a similar quality in potential co-founders, team members and investors.