Lessons From My Marine

We ordered Jarhead on Pay Per View last weekend. For me it was one of those rare glimpses into my husband’s past life as a Marine deployed to Iraq. One day, I asked if he was afraid when they deployed and they were telling all the troops to expect the worst biological weapons. He kinda shrugged (men!) and said his famous words “You gotta do what you gotta do” so, just do the job and hope for the best.

In an article in the Entrepreneur Magazine, Robert Kiyosaki said, “Fear made some Marines smarter, while others fools” and “I learned that fear, when it takes the form of self-doubt”, kills more men than the enemy”. Hmm… a lot of masculinity ;-) but it made me think about my business ventures.

There are points in time when I am fearful. It could be fear of interviewed and recorded, fear of getting on a live call to speak, fear of failure, fear of success, fear my product is not good enough, fear people will unsubscribe if I recommend a product and on and on and on. Yet, none of these activities risked my life at all. Yeah I’m risking some ego, self esteem and sometimes money but all of that can be earned back again know what I mean?

When my husband (and all the brave men and women in military today and before) went into the battle field, they risked it all, there is no turning back if you pay the ultimate price. So… here we are, afraid of things that aren’t fatal. Just do it.

I have a lot of fear but over the last year have learnt to deal with it. What about you? If fear takes a stranglehold on you, your business is not going to go as far as you hope. Sometimes we just have to close your eyes and jump and when you jump often enough, you will become familiar with it and soon, it’ll be like “Hey, no sweat”.

But if you succumb to your fears, it’s not going to go away, the next time you come to the same cross roads (you know you’ll come to it again), you’ll be no better than where you are now, you’ve not progressed and you’ve lost the opportunity to move your business ahead. As my Marine says – You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do so go get ‘em.

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