Chapter 5Confront the F Word
Achieving a dream. Making the impossible possible. Asking how good you want to be. Some of you will be filled with excitement at the idea of doing things like this. This might be why you want to be a leader. Some of you will feel panic about the idea of launching into the unknown. If this is you, you are not alone. All of us are held back by our fears.
The most obvious fear is that you will fail. But there are others. Fear of looking ridiculous. Fear of rejection. Fear that people will not follow you.
The final part of commitment is the commitment to break through those fears as a team. Fear is natural, but living in fear is not. Everyone is afraid sometimes. It's what you, and your team, do about that fear that matters.
Fear of Flying
A man, in his 50s, is sitting in the doorway of a plane like a condemned man. Below him, 13,500 feet away, is a patchwork of fields, a coastline, the sea. It all looks so small.
He is terrified. He holds on to the doorway, because that reminds him of the certain world that's two-and-a-half-miles below. He knows that everyone is waiting for him to step out, but he's scared of heights: he got dizzy when he was given a room on the eighth floor of a hotel. As he looks down, he knows there are two instructors to hold on to him, and keep him safe. That doesn't matter right now, because his instincts tell him that when ...
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