Fear feeds on vague possibilities, not concrete ones. When you spell out the actual worst case—quitting your job, the business fails, you move back home—it becomes manageable. A failed venture becomes a story for business school or your next job, not a disaster.
I think fear exists in the vague, not in the specific. When you say, I'm going to quit my job and then what if this doesn't work? Tons of fear. If I say I'm going to quit my job and then I'm going to try and start a business, and if the business doesn't work, I'll probably have a compelling story that I could tell for business school if I wanted to, to show that I had some entrepreneurial slant. In the meantime, I could use that experience plus my job experience to probably get another or maybe even better job, match or supersede my existing income. In the actual cost would be maybe the savings that I had saved up. But if I'm younger or I haven't made as much money as I want, then that's never been the amount of money that would be material anyways on the grand scheme of what I would like to make. And in terms of living situation, I will worst case go back to my parents' house with my tail between my legs or sleep at a friend's couch because I have enough people that would be willing to put me up in a garage if I had to. So my actual worst case scenario is just like I have a cool story and maybe some shame. Not as much fear there, right? But like the first one, like I'll fail, Everyone will hate me and I'll die.
