I love road trips; I always keep an atlas in the car and know how to read it. Sometimes I rely on it, and other times I follow my instincts. On a recent road trip, my son and I decided to take a detour to visit a legendary local ice cream shop. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open yet. Instead of retracing our steps, we decided to explore some back roads to get to the highway. Western New Jersey is stunning, with quiet, winding roads. I appreciated the peacefulness of that Saturday morning.
We passed a house with a large banner across the front porch that read, “BE FEARLESS.” The bold black and white message was impossible to miss, even for random road-trippers like us. I’m not sure why the homeowner displayed it, but it gave me a chance to reflect on my own relationship with fear and fearlessness. Just four months earlier, I had started a new job that pushed me out of my comfort zone. It brought challenges, opportunities, and the unique chance to build something from the ground up.
A year before that, I had worked through a career review exercise with Samantha Mulcahy, a friend and executive coach. One part of the exercise involved identifying my fears. My fear wasn’t about whether I could do the job—it was the fear of losing that new job.
Fear is an interesting emotion. When we confront it, we can either shy away from what scares us or use it as a motivator to dive headfirst into the unknown. Is fearlessness the same as the latter and the opposite of the former? I’m not entirely sure. Do we need to embrace fear to become fearless? Probably.
Complacency at work is easy, and at times, it’s even necessary. But when the moment calls for a challenge—taking a risk, learning something new, or stepping into uncharted territory—it can feel daunting. For me, the fear of failure and losing my new job loomed large. It wasn’t about doubting my abilities; it was the fear of what failure might mean. My logical side reminds me that failure can be a valuable teacher, especially if you fail forward. My emotional side, however, whispers that failure will overshadow the lesson and leave me starting over once again.
When I took this opportunity, a colleague asked why I left a stable, familiar job where I had been successful for something uncertain and completely new. It was a fair question. On one hand, I felt fearless because of past successes and the excitement of a fresh challenge. On the other hand, fear was very much present.
Fearlessness doesn’t come naturally to most of us, but it is essential for growth. The world is evolving, and the skills we need to excel are constantly changing. New tools, software, and ways of thinking and working are becoming the norm. I’m deeply grateful that I faced—or perhaps set aside—my greatest fear and took this job. Now, the rest is up to me. So, I encourage all of us to BE FEARLESS rather than BEING AFRAID, ensuring we don’t miss the road or the journey.