Episode 38 - Success Through Fear and Madeleine L'Engle

Episode 38 Notes

Success through Fear and Madeline L’Engle

Coffee:

God’s Gift to Gamers (Medium Roast)

Overcoming Fear to Achieve Success

In Crushing It, Gary Vee talks about three types of fear that can hold us back from being successful in a new endeavor.

1. Fear of Failure

This can often boil down to fear of judgement by people whose opinions matter to us. You have to just push through this and do what it takes.

“No one who played it safe ever made it big. This is your life, and I promise you the chances of truly ruining it are slim.”

2. Fear of Wasting Time

We might be afraid our idea won’t pan out, and all that time will be wasted. But is all our time truly valuable? If all you’re giving up is TV time, what have you really got to lose? You can always go back to watching Netflix later. TV will always be there later when you come back.

And as we’ve discussed, you can learn a lot from failure, maybe even more than from quick success.

3. Fear of Seeming Vain

This one mostly pertains to trying to build a personal brand, something Gary Vee recommends for all entrepreneurs. It goes back to not worrying what people think. Anyone can look dumb when they’re trying something new. It’s stupid until it’s cutting edge, then it’s brilliant.

Madeleine L’Engle

It’s School Librarian Day AND Library Week, so we wanted to talk about a famous librarian, one who broke through her fears to become successful.

Madeleine L’Engle was about to turn 40 years old and on the verge of giving up. She’d just received another rejection notice. L’Engle hadn’t been able to turn her writing into a successful career, and felt it was time to pursue something that would make more money for the family.

She didn’t feel she could quit though, and pressed on, writing what would become her most famous book, A Wrinkle in Time. She went on to have a long and extremely successful career, writing dozens of books.

Madeleine L’Engle worked as a librarian at her church, maintaining an office there for 30 years.