Weekly Reflection: ☀️ On Courage | v1.023
Entrepreneurs are not fearless, they put fear in a corner
On Friday, paid subscribers of this newsletter joined in on the inaugural Small Starts Talks, a monthly conversation amongst founders. Together, we are building a learning community that provides support and accountability, especially for founders of color. Of course, everyone is welcome.
I seeded the conversation asking them from where they were drawing inspiration, using this quote I picked up from a friend, shared in a tweet:
That’s right: Go where your energy is reciprocated, celebrated and appreciated.
In that virtual room, I observed exactly that. Here was a group of entrepreneurs coming together with many different qualities of entrepreneurship: curiosity, humility, tenacity and passion are just a few. And there’s another one that stands out to me now: courage. This characteristic seemingly contradicts the legendary tales of entrepreneurship that dominate the stories we tell about who succeeds.
The face of entrepreneurship is dominated by stereotypes. They are men. They tend to be white men. They are smart, white men who are fearless, risk taking and independent. Media glorifies these images, and that is so dangerous. It has real impact on how we view entrepreneurship life, what we think it takes to be an entrepreneur, and the mindset of aspiring entrepreneurs to even start acting on an idea.
Being fearless and having courage are not the same. Someone who is fearless, I think, tends to have low emotional connection to the outcome. Instead, it’s as though they are building tolerance for failure, instead of the agility and strength that success requires.
While entrepreneurs might need to have an appetite for high risk, it causes them to hold a myopic view on growth. They think they can do it alone, need to know everything, or experience it all, and build a company on sacrifice and martyrdom.
Yes, entrepreneurs may take big risks with tremendous payoffs; however, we know that most up starts fail. And when they fail, there’s often little consequence for those myopic risk takers. In fact, startup culture inherently seems to not only value failure, they often seem to reward failure repeatedly. Building up a tolerance for risk, failing quickly and acting without fear — it seem like a destructive cycle — that gets you hired somewhere else.
Following my friend CJ’s wisdom in that tweet, I realized that this diverse group of entrepreneurs in this community exhibited similar qualities, despite being in different phases of growth, varied sectors and unique missions and company structures. They acknowledged feelings of uncertainty — and, even fear — yet they respected and name the emotion, thereby giving it less power. They are not fearless; instead they are leading with courage. That’s what I believe we need to nurture more in entrepreneurship.
It takes courage to acknowledge fear and not let it keep you from starting something. Our lived experiences make us unique, and this group of entrepreneurs I am working with are taking calculated risks to provide for their families and community. For women and founders of color, this is a particularly important trait, because many of us do not see themselves in the dominant success stories.
Whether we are a small business owner, a startup founder or nonprofit leader, BIPOC entrepreneurs are where I see incredible change happening, from my vantage point — even more so than in big business. Until recently, there were no Black women CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. Now that number is growing to just three.
Today’s small business owners and startup entrepreneurs require courage to stand out and be noticed, while putting fear in the corner. Just by existing, doing the work and growing our businesses, year after year, that is success. In fact, failure is not seen as being an option for many, unlike the tales of legends we hear too much.