Overcoming Fear

I emailed the FOUNDER of my DREAM COMPANY! This was what happened.

The Scary Action

Last year when I started my job search, I was thinking about fitness tech. I had experience working in the tech industry. I was also a personal trainer, hosted my own fitness podcast, and built an online community and a cohort-based course. I have a unique skill set in tech and fitness, so fitness tech companies will be good shots for me.  

Of all the top fit-tech companies, there was one that I really wanted to work with. I would even call it by drink my “dream company”. After submitting my resume on their website and contacting one of their employee for an internal referral, I thought there must be something else I could do to win my bet. And the first thing coming to my mind was emailing their founder.

That thought was exciting but terrifying at the same time. I had lots of self-doubts and excitement.

“Who am I? Why would a founder want to talk to me?”

“Oh, I can definitely do this because I have all these awesome experiences”

After two weeks of internal debates with myself, I decided to film a video. It's a 3-minute video that took me about eight hours to film and refilm. I also sent the founder an e-mail telling him how much I love this company, and what he was doing, and I really want to work for him. It took me about 20 times to rewrite that 200 words email. Before I hit send, a lot of emotions came up.

“What if he won’t reply to me?”

“What if he thinks I'm stupid?”

“What if I get a job?”

“What if I get to become really successful in the company?”

A lot of self-doubts, a lot of hopes. After I hit send, I wish the best for myself.

Developing a New Relationship with Fear

Few months after sending the scary meal. I've officially joined the team.

Just kidding.

I wish this will happen. What really happens is two months passed, and I never heard anything back. Nada. The founder didn't even check the YouTube video I sent him! Before when I thought if this happens, I would die in my heart. It would literally crush my soul. I would be so defeated that there is no way I'm going to look for any other jobs.

But to my surprise, what I really felt is tremendous freedom of doing what I really want to do. I realize the value of taking the necessary but uncomfortable action lies in taking the action itself. When I took the action, I developed a new relationship with the fear I had in my mind. If I didn’t take that action, that fear would beget more fear and would be replicated in any other situations I have in my life. It will influence the things that I really wanted to do but didn't dare to try.

By overcoming my fear and taking scary actions like this, I realize what was really lost in addition to the time that I spent on taking the action, was just the emotional cost I had. I didn’t lose any money. I didn't go broke. I didn't die. I just feel uncomfortable and a little bit sad. That's it. But also because of this, I gained the mental strength I needed to accomplish more things, and take more uncomfortable actions that might be necessary to my future potential success.

Because I took that very scary action, everything I did now just feels so much lighter for me. I was able to contact cool people on the internet and send more emails to founders. Some replyed and we build a very good connection with each other. Some just never reply to me and that's okay, because now I know what it's like to overcome my fear. Fear is no longer dominating my life.

Now, I know since you are reading this right now, there are probably some necessary but scary steps that you know you need to take in order to live the life you want, right? Are you going to do it today?