It’s OK to be terrified of failure (note to self)

You know that feeling when you're lying in bed at 2am, your mind spinning through your business idea again? Your heart starts racing. Not from excitement – well, maybe partly from excitement – but from something that feels a lot like dread.

You've got the idea. You've got the time. Hell, you might even have some savings put aside. You can picture yourself six months from now, running your own thing, making your own decisions, maybe even making real money. The whole fantasy is right there, perfectly clear. And you're absolutely terrified.

Most people will tell you that you're afraid of failure. What if you spend six months building something and nobody wants it? What if you burn through your savings? What if you have to go back to your job with your tail between your legs?

But here's what nobody talks about: you're not just afraid it won't work. You're afraid it will work.

If your thing actually succeeds, you become a completely different person overnight. You're not an employee anymore – you're a business owner making more money than your friends, doing something most people around you don't understand. Your drinking buddies ask what you do now, and you have to explain that you built this thing that's working, and no you can't really explain why people pay for it. Your parents worry about you not having a "real job." Your college friends either think you're bragging or they start treating you differently.

Success means becoming someone you've never been before, in a world you don't understand yet, with problems you can't even imagine. Failure means staying exactly who you are, just with a story about something you tried once.

Of course you're terrified. Anyone with half a brain would be terrified. You're waiting for the terror to go away, thinking that one day you'll wake up feeling brave and confident. But every successful person felt exactly what you're feeling right now.

The only difference is they stopped waiting for the fear to disappear before they started moving.