One of the most important things I have ever done in my life is find out what really holds me back from taking risks.

After all, if you want to grow, as a person, as a business, you need to take risks: all power comes from going out of your comfort zone, and it’s a risk.

The kind of risk that causes you to grow is the kind of risk you need existential courage to face.

The other risk, existential risk, is annihilation of your physical body, but the kind of risk that causes growth is the kind that threatens to annihilate your self-image, your persona, to make you look bad, be wrong, be less than you desire to be.

So you can see, you have that kind of risk every step of the way, while the other, existential risk is rare and dull in comparison.

Let me return to the most important thing I have ever done, and that is: find out and own my biggest fear. Embrace it, if you wish… Love it, if you wish…

When I was around three years old, I made a wrong decision and I got hurt as a result. I decided that I can’t trust myself, that I can’t trust my decisions, because I am stupid.

If you have followed me around for the past 60 years you would have seen me making wrong turns, wrong decisions, blurt out stupid things, and it would be very evident that something must be up.

But 17 years ago something changed and that’s what I want to share: I realized that my biggest fear is being stupid. And everything you are afraid of owns you, runs your life, and you are a puppet on a string. In fact, you are your worst fears waiting to happen.

The fear is instant, and it is paralizing. Small decision, big decision, they are all an opportunity for being wrong… life is a maze: best not do anything… Familiar?

But when you accept that you are stupid, that you tend to make wrong turns, wrong decisions, hasty mistakes, etc. and really accept it, like you’d accept the broken face child you have given birth, then life alters, and you are now allowed to make those same mistakes, in fact you are encouraged.

From that point on the question is not, whether you are stupid or not. That question is decided: you are, so what? I know a lot of stupid people that are famous, that are rich, that are loved by people… I know a lot of those, in fact. I should be afraid of being smart, in fact, smart people are not famous, not rich, and not loved by others: people reward stupidity, lol. Very funny, and I don’t care. I like to be smart. And I don’t mind being stupid.

Now, one would expect that I would make more mistakes after this discovery and this acceptance of my stupidity, but the fact is, I am making less mistakes. For one, I am aware that I am wired to make hasty decisions, decisions without looking, decisions without doing my due diligence. So, at least some of the time, I wait, I pause, I do my due diligence. Some of the time, maybe half?

What prompted this article is a mistake I made.

I have renamed my Heaven on Earth remedy for public consumption. I realized that it is really hard to believe that a bottle of water will effect 40 vastly different emotional states… sounds like a scam to me… would you agree? So I researched what products people are looking for that the Heaven on Earth would be eminently suitable to help with, and found out that a lot of people suffer from poor sleep, or the inability to fall asleep. Lovely.

So, I renamed the Heaven on Earth to Sleep Rescue, and posted it on Amazon.com’s marketplace. I expected that I would have to ship it to Amazon, so I said: start selling it on November 15… I calculated the shipping time. Except, that Amazon didn’t accept it to ship the bottles to the buyers for me…

I was waiting, and I was fretting, and I was holding my breath for 10 days… until this morning, when the product, unexpectedly became alive and available on Amazon. Wow…

The mistake I made is not adjusting the start selling date… stupid, isn’t it? I could have started to sell it 10 days ago, and would have spared myself from the fretting.

But I know I am stupid, I love that I am stupid, and I celebrate that my product is on Amazon. With no bad taste in my mouth

Want to see it? Here you go: Sleep Rescue aka Heaven on Earth

Read the original article: Existential Courage, taking risks, and what will be the most important turning point in your life