Classroom-2-Boardroom: Our Deepest Fear... falling so low, when we're flying so high.

4-minute read: When limiting what could go wrong means limiting what could go right.

Hi friends👋🏾

Happy Wednesday ✨

It’s already Issue 10 of Classroom-2-Boardroom! This is a 4-minute read- no more, no less. 🙅🏾‍♂️

The past week was pretty hectic (actually the past few weeks have been). But it also forced me to reflect on my deepest fear as many of us go from classroom-2-boardroom. 🤌🏾

Our Deepest Fear:
Issue 10: Falling so low, when we're flying so high.

If you ask Olakunle Soriyan, he’d say fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. 💯

If I ask my pastor, they’ll me tell the Lord has not given me the spirit of fear.💯

Yet, we all experience this, time and time again. 🤷🏾‍♀️

For some, it’s the fear of being rejected when you ask a girl out. 🤒

For some, it’s the fear of being misunderstood by your peers. ☹️

For some, it’s the fear of being abandoned. 😞

For many, it’s simply the fear of the unknown🤔. Whatever it is, we all have the fear factor.

But here’s the catch, my friends.

👉🏾Being afraid is not the issue. In fact, it’s rare to see someone who hasn’t experienced fear at some point in their life. 🙅🏾‍♂️

It’s okay to be scared, afraid, or fearful. But it becomes “un-okay” when our actions are solely from a place of fear.

You see what I did there? I just introduced a new word into the dictionary (Nobel Prize loading)

Okayy Dulra focus!

👉🏾Fear attracts fearful decisions, and produces fearful results leading to a fearful lifestyle. 👈🏾

It’s not that we can’t fly so high. 🙅🏾‍♂️ It’s just that we have the fear of falling so low.🤒

We try to limit our downsides—which is the logical thing to do, as human beings. 😇

But my friends, when we try so hard to limit our downsides, we’re also unconsciously limiting our upsides. ☹️

We choose not to fly so high because if things don’t go well, we won’t fall so low. 😆

We choose not to speak in public because if things don’t go well, we won’t be shamed in public.😁

We do things in private to avoid scrutiny of the public. 🙂

We avoid sharing our thoughts to avoid criticism. 😃

We follow the status quo to avoid taking any risks.

Most (if not all) of these tie back to our deepest fear.

What, then, is our deepest fear?

Our deepest fear…but before that. 😆

Recently, I had the rare privilege to meet with Keke Palmer at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center's 8th Anniversary.

Why am I telling you this? Because Keke starred as Akeelah in the 2006 movie- Akeelah and the Bee.

And just when she was about to give up on her dreams, she was made to confront her fears. 🔥

But that was also the first time I’ve had to question and confront my fears. 🕺🏾

I must tell you though — it was surreal meeting my childhood and longtime role model in person. 🫡

…and the saying goes

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?'

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson

Remember my friends, evaluating risks is a great thing. 👌🏾

Being afraid is acceptable. But thou shall not let fear be the yardstick for thy decisions. 🙅🏾‍♂️

The more you try to limit what could go wrong, the less attention you pay to what could go right. 🤷🏾‍♀️

The more you cap your downsides, the more you cap your upsides! 💁🏾‍♂️

So what’s the catch Dulra❓

In the words of Erik Torenbeg, “Take Asymmetric bets”.

If “betting” is too strong, I’d say make asymmetric moves or pursue asymmetric opportunities! 🙅🏾‍♂️

As Erik pointed out, “Asymmetric opportunities usually have meaningful upside in a success case, and meaningful learning or development in a downside case. If the downside case is still one of the best case scenarios you can imagine, then that’s an easy asymmetric bet to take.

In addition to pursuing things that have meaningful upside (and thus some risk), asymmetric bets can also involve taking a bet in risky spaces that other people aren’t pursuing”

Remember my friends, you can’t be afraid of falling so low if you’re willing to fly so high or put it another way, you can’t let the fear of falling so low prevent you from flying so high. 💯🚀🫡

Think asymmetric 🎯

That’s it for today and here’s our quote of the week.👇🏾

If you really want to fly so high, you can’t be afraid of falling so low.

Until next time,
Don’t Forget to be Awesome,

Dulra ❤️
Founder/CEO, Dot.