Ask any fractal entrepreneur or anybody about the biggest issue they have in life and you will immediately get the reply – Fear. Is it just fear though? Most often it turns out to be phobias…big and small.
Fear, I discovered, would never leave me. It is a good alert system to have. It is a temporary reaction to definite events and stimulus that prompts me to understand and overcome a roadblock that could have hurt me otherwise.
Phobias, on the other hand, I discovered, were set behaviours that repeated when remembering the fear of facing the stimulus of the fear again.
As a child I had a fear of dark places. It built into such a phobia that I would never venture into a room if someone did not switch on the light in the room.
As I got older it became a necessity for me to overcome the fear as I did not enjoy having avoidable weaknesses within me. I watched myself when I approached a dark room. I noticed that my mind imagined that a fearsome lion, vampire or thief might leap out of the shadows to get me. I reasoned again that none of these had actually happened to any of my family members! And the statistics of a thief jumping out was much less indeed! I began to live minimalistically in order to never tempt thieves and would superimpose the thought of lion and vampire with pictures of a starry night sky and galaxies each time I entered a room. I would also train my eyes slowly to see in the dark and use my limbs to guide my way. A phobia was dealt with. Fear did not have to die out as it ensured I would be careful in dark places.
Facing fear fearlessly is what fractal entrepreneurs are taught. This process fully acknowledges a fear without brushing it aside. Fears are needed as they push us to solve problems, ideate solutions and motivate us to get up and move. But one has to be very careful to avoid turning the fear into a phobia.
The admonitions of a math teacher made an incubatee fear accounting. She had to learn to do math her way, much differently from how others did. But on learning to deal with it albeit differently, her phobias came down while fear gives her just that little motivation to check things longer and earlier than others who don’t have that fear.
Another incubatee was petrified about having to take back home the bad news that she might not bring in the monthly take home that month. Expenses had been high and income had gotten a hit. If she gave up her take home, business might hobble onto the next month. Past instances of a similar situation had brought on adverse reactions. Just going back home seemed like a huge deal. She tackles this phobia with step by step process of discussing with her family members, showing them her achievements so far, and pointing out the great impact she has on society. She faces her fear almost fearlessly. But she has only replaced her phobia with well detailed steps of solutions. Never will the fear leave her. It will be there and ensure that she is sensitised enough to discuss her inability to sometimes not bring in money in parts or whole as she was still running an upcoming social startup.
Another incubatee had a phobia of facing losses. The first time she faced them she had to take a loan. She hates to take loans as she then needs to face several relatives who scorn her for being financially weak. However her desire to work in her startup was huge. She learnt value engineering, cut costs, to focus on the few initiatives that brought in money, removed white elephant like initiatives and to tell her relatives that what she does is special.
To the many fractal entrepreneurs who are ridden with anxieties the incubation process enables them to define and list their pain points first. Then each pain point is taken and the IDEIn process of Innovation is applied to them. By this process, incubatees conduct literary research, ethnography, experts research and finally experiment at low cost. They learn to fail often and fast but eventually, they develop a mindset that helps them to face every fear fearlessly.
The incubatees know that the ultimate end of an innovation to face fear fearlessly might result in success, pain or death. These 3 events are made to be seen as objectively as possible. Fractal Entrepreneurs understand that success is a transient event. It gives us a scope for taking the next step to a goal. But if we focussed on success alone, we might stop building the blueprint for someone else to take up where we got stalled. And if we focus only on success, with so many things going against vulnerable human beings, the probability of odds against us is so high that it is foolish to depend on or develop a culture based on success! Success should be a motivation for the next step but the goal should be to leave a legacy of the blueprint of processes taken and achievements or experiences had in order to pass the baton on to someone else to take up and charge forward. The other side may also happen. A miracle could take place and you might be chugging along nicely again!
They understand, too, that pain is a temporary phenomenon and can be overcome with time. Pain needs to be respected and sat through and addressed. Death or relief from pain would be the ultimate end of pain. Both are relief points of sorts.
Fractal entrepreneurs are aware of continuous pain. They know that this needs addressing and can be heart wrenching. But the processes needed to heal partially or wholly, just need to follow problem solving techniques with the next step in mind always. To stagnate meant to give up in an untimely manner. It is ok to die fighting fate. But none of the fractal entrepreneurs can live stagnating.
The journey of doing our best with the tools that are the best is what emboldens the ever innovating fractal entrepreneur.
The process goes like this:
- Everyday ensure you spend time by meditating, exercising and eating a whole food plant based diet.
- List your pain points and use the IDEIn methodology to solve it. If it is a question of mental chaos, use SKY introspection techniques to solve it
- Move to the next step.
- Never die until you are dead.
- Remember that you are the best for having done your best. Not for winning.
This process brings out sharp focus on addressing issues. Fear then does not turn into phobia but motivates one into developing intelligence and skill required to address the fear in the best possible manner until it’s time to say goodbye. The act of dying should rest with fate, never with ourselves.
The fractal entrepreneurs are perhaps the highest form of karma yogis of modern times. They acknowledge fear and use it as a motivator to perform while looking out to ensure that they dont fall into the trap of converting it into a phobia.
Fear is alright to have, therefore. Do you agree? Do write to me at radha@fractalentrepreneurship.org
Be blessed.