If you want to understand what you are afraid of, then just take a look at who you are paying to do things for you. There will be one of two conclusions.
- You have figured out a process that works really well and now you want to scale. You are hiring people to make this process flow even better and even faster.
- You have fear. You do not think you can do what you are asking someone to do for you. You are afraid of this and, therefore, are willing to part with your money to have someone do it for you.
This binary will be disagreeable to you at first look. It was to me. I came up with about ten reasons I might hire someone that was not #2. However, the deeper I looked, the more those reasons just looked like excuses. This is something that I know how to do. Why should I do something that I am not that good at? Wouldn’t it be wiser to just hire someone? No, it would not. It would be better for me to try and figure out the process and then, when I have it working, go and hire someone to do it for me. So why am I not doing it? Fear.
But wait a minute, I say to myself. I am too busy to dive into something and figure it out. Isn’t it smarter to outsource things that I do not have time for? To hire people who are experts in a topic that I am not? Yes! However, when do you hire the extra talent? When do you hire the expert? If you look carefully, your instinct to hire these people is not when you are ready, but actually when you are the most afraid. Instead of doing your diligence, you hire people, and you are effectively hoping that they will tell you something that reduces your fear.
Here is the funny thing. You have not started out yet; you are just barely at the idea stage, and you are hiring people. Not because they can actually do a task for you that you have defined but because you are hoping they will help you see a path past your fear. Then, when you start working with them, they will actually start confirming all your fears. All the things that you knew that you would have to figure out are confirmed. You just paid an expert to tell you what you already knew.
Well, perhaps I need a guide instead? Perhaps, I need someone to walk me through the steps and guide me through the process so that I do not make mistakes along the way? Now this sounds reasonable, but think this through. You have not even started on the path yet, and you are already looking for a guide? You are so afraid of tripping on a small rock that you will spend all of your time and money navigating the easiest part of the path? The time for a guide is not when the trail is well marked, the time for a guide is when the path becomes extremely treacherous and complicated. Fear is what is seeking the guide in the early stages, not a genuine desire for a guide.
Now that I think about it, in every hero story that I have ever read the guide is not sought. The guide comes at the right time by some mysterious happenstance that occurs when the hero needs it the most. If you try to force the guide into your employ, then they will be in your life at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Every time I have tried to take this shortcut I have the same result. The guide that I hired is trying to pull me onto a new path, one that they know well. I resist, because I want to take the path that I am on. The guide tries to convince me that my path is not good, and this other path is better. A guide hired too soon, always tried to divert your attention to the path well travelled. Maybe that is a good thing, but at least admit that it was your fear that made this decision and not the guide.
There is an entire industry now starting to blossom that is feeding on the hard things that people are afraid to do. The new economy of fear peddling. Are you afraid of speaking? You can hire someone to “help” you with that. Are you afraid of looking for a job? You can hire for that. Are you afraid of cold outreach? There is definitely a few people for that. Are you afraid of making mistakes? I even found someone claiming that they could help me with that. Are you afraid of starting? That is covered to. Need help asking for money. Got you covered. All the worries and frets that a new entrepreneur has can be hired out. I guess the ones that you are afraid of the most, are the ones that you will ultimately pay for. Which leads me to this interesting conclusion. Is there something that you are not afraid of that everyone else is? If the answer is yes, then you could very well become rich fast.
Fascinating….and true.