The best value of fear is the motivation it gives. Fear is the reason why many get out of bed in the morning to make their dreams a reality. It gives excitement, adrenaline, and energy to channel into making your dreams into reality.
Fear is very valuable because it doesn’t act as a deterrent to your actions but acts as a motivator. It’s the most powerful emotion we experience because it immediately activates the “fight or flight” mode that our evolutionary ancestors took advantage of.
Fear is a net positive to our lives that only the few truly understand its potential of. Because of fear, I increased my net worth to $500k at just 28. Because of fear, I increased my income to $200k+ in just my 20s. I was desperately afraid of having zero results for the efforts I put into my life.
The thought of being poor with no women and any chances of upward mobility terrified me.
I graduated college at 21 with a 3.82 GPA, which took many stressful nights and effort to do. After graduation, I poured my heart out to my job so I could increase my income as much as I could. Then I saved and invested as much money as I could so I could have $500k by 28.
The value of fear is often overlooked because we try to avoid situations that give us “bad” feelings. Those bad feelings may just be the best things we could ever feel in the world. Motivation separates the ones who do with the spectators.
Value of Fear: 9 Values that Can’t be Ignored
Below are the 9 values of fear that many don’t see. We should embrace the value of fear and it may just be the best decision we’ll ever make. It’s made the biggest difference to my life.
1) Motivation
When I was in the 5th grade, my mom put me aside and told me that “starting from middle school, you need to start doing well”. She used the word “need”. For some reason, that gave me chills. “What’s going to happen to me if I don’t?” Was what I thought.
Then I started pouring my heart out into school. I graduated 4th in my class out of 700+ in high school. Then in University, I poured more effort into my life and into my studies. I worked every single summer of University and during school semesters as well.
That’s how I graduated with $40,000 in my bank account while my friends graduated with debt. The value of fear is the motivation it gives to put your best foot forward. The best part is that the motivation is almost permanent.
I’m still afraid I’m going to end up a nobody, which is why I save and invest as much as I can. It’s led me to build great wealth at a young age.
2) Value of Fear: You Put in the Action
There’s many who puts in the work to “please their parents”. That’s a temporary motivation. Unfortunately, our parents will not be around forever. The value of fear is that it leads you to actually put in the work to achieve your goals.
We don’t just read about how to achieve our goals, we actually put in the work. Knowledge is powerful but it’s nothing without execution. Every day, I go to work, earn money and save and invest as much money as I possibly can.
It’s not just a theoretical way to build wealth for me, anymore. I do it automatically because I know that’s the real way to build the most amount of wealth. On the weekends, I put in time into working on this blog and now I’m looking to work on building a YouTube channel next.
The value of fear is that the strong emotion actually leads you to put in action to better your life.
3) Fear Eliminates Complacency
The first 2 – 3 years out of college, I felt like there was a fire lit under me. I was desperately afraid of getting fired because I was working in the most unprofitable area of the company. However, after 3 years and no layoffs, I got complacent.
The fear was gone because 3 years was a long time to put in effort towards a job.
However, afterwards, COVID hit. My investment account value was plummeting every single day and I couldn’t afford to lose my job on top, as well. It renewed my motivation to work and do good work for my employer. After the year was over, I snagged a promotion.
The value of fear is that it renews our intrinsic motivation to never forget our goals we set out for ourselves. The worst thing we can do for ourselves is feeling comfort. There were many higher ups I met who was just happy to have a job, get paid, and go home.
I personally didn’t want that lifestyle and the renewed interest and spark came from recognizing the power of fear. It motivated me to work as hard as I did in my younger days.
4) Fear Leads to Results
When your back is up against the wall, that’s when you do everything you can to get out of the situation. The value of fear is that it’s the starting point from putting in the action that gives results. Effort is meaningless in this world, what matters are results.
When we’re afraid of being lonely, we go on dates! When we’re afraid of being broke, we make as much money as we can. If failure is not an option, we put in safeguards to ensure that doesn’t happen. It’s amazing what happens when we are motivated to succeed.
With the onslaught of the 2023 recession, I am personally afraid of layoffs. Therefore, I’m planning my move ahead of potential layoffs and anything bad that might happen to my main source of income. It’s why I hyper-focused on building wealth because the cushion is so important to me.
When we have no other option but to put in the work, we get great results. It’s why I built a net worth of $500k in my 20s.
5) No Excuses
Fear doesn’t let you make excuses. Fear makes you so scared that you don’t have time to think of excuses. All you have time to do is the next course of action to take so you can get out of the uncomfortable situation.
When I was desperately afraid that I would end up unemployed after college, I had no time to think of excuses. I kept applying to 100+ companies, with none of the rejection emails convincing me to give up. I eventually settled on the lowest salary offer I got.
Which, coincidentally, was the best decision ever because I increased that income by 60% after six months. The value of fear is that it doesn’t let you make excuses. Comfort lets you make excuses like, “I’ll do it tomorrow” or “I put in a hard day’s work already”. Not fear.
You’re too scared and afraid out of your mind. I refuse to make excuses and blame others for my life because it’s my responsibility.
6) Fear Leads to Safety and Security
In evolutionary terms, we used our feet for 2 things and 2 things only. To run away from predators or to walk towards food. Fear makes you use your feet to jump back to safety and security. In August 2022 at the onslaught of the bear market, I was deeply afraid that I would lose my job.
On top of the $100k+ investment losses I experienced. Therefore, I sold 100% of my investments that month. From August 2022 and onwards, I felt security and slowly built up my psyche and mindset over the months. It was the best decision I ever made.
I didn’t care about the additional gains that I was missing out on. What mattered to me was having the ability to stand on my own two feet no matter what the economic circumstances are going forward. And it was all worth it. The value of fear is that it makes you crave security and safety.
Sometimes, it’s better to live to tell another day than it is to maximize potential gains.
7) Proper Risk Management
When I was young, I thought I was invincible. As I slowly built more wealth over the years, I felt even more invincible. When you start to feel invincible is when you take on excessive risk. And I learned that the hard way. 2022 hit me like a train.
My mind was spiraling out of control and my heart was beating fast so often. I wasn’t properly allocated to risk assets for my own personal risk tolerance. Value of fear is that it teaches you the value of proper risk management and how much risk you can really tolerate.
Confidence can absolutely backfire when it causes you to take on too much risk for your own liking. No one really understands the concept and value of risk until they lose 30%+ of their net worth in just six months. With no guarantee of a rebound.
I’m glad I learned the value of fear for good risk management early on in my career rather than in my later years when I have a family.
8) Value of Fear: It’s an Evolutionary Advantage
Fear leads you to being careful and it makes you outlast the competition. The successful ones aren’t the ones who soar to new heights after another year after year. The successful ones simply outlast the competition. Just staying alive is an accomplishment in and of itself.
Half of businesses fail within the first five years. HALF! Just staying alive is a commendable feat. Many of my younger peers thought, “who wants to just stay alive? It’s about trying to make a 6 figure business or nothing!”. That’s the wrong way to think.
Surviving and growing slowly but surely is a great feat. That’s the value of fear. Because it lets you outlast the competition. So that when the competition eventually does go bankrupt by being confident and taking on debt, you’re there to scoop up their assets for pennies on the dollar.
Many risk loving companies are no longer around today. The great financial crisis and the tech bubble bursting taught important life lessons.
9) Fear Eliminates Pride
Pride is one of the worst things you can ever have in your life. Ever. Pride makes you see a distorted sense of reality. The value of fear is that it overrides pride. You don’t mind taking money from your parents if it means you can pay the mortgage with the money.
You don’t mind working in an industry you don’t believe in, such as oil and gas, because it’s what’ll pay the bills for your family to live on. Pride is one of the worst emotions to have in business and in life. You don’t let pride get in the way and tell everyone how great everything is if you’re sitting on piles of losses.
Because you’re scared that if you tell lies about your losses, it’ll spiral out of control. It makes you think that everything is fine when it isn’t. That’s how valuable fear is because it stops you from letting your emotions from spiraling out of control.
Wins don’t affect you as much because you never know when you might lose everything all over again. Letting wins get to your head is a very bad thing.
Value of Fear: Fear is Very Valuable
The value of fear is unquantifiable because it determines intrinsic motivation, something that many lack today. You don’t take action because someone else forces you to take action. You take action because you want to make things happen.
Your back is up against the wall. Fear is the reason why I don’t let any portfolio gains get into my head anymore. Fear is the reason why I stay level headed throughout the years. I basically lost all sense of emotions when it comes to winning and losing money.
Because the fear of losing everything is always in the back of my mind. I never know when all the winnings I earned throughout the years will be taken away from me in a second. Life happens and it always happens in the most unexpected ways imaginable.
To this day, fear is the reason why I continue to do what I do. It’s the reason why I still put in the work even when it’s easier to just turn on the TV and watch Netflix. It’s the reason why I’m going to be a millionaire sooner than any of my friends.
I am OK losing in a competitive environment. I am not OK losing because I refused to be motivated to put in the effort. It’s high time we conquer our times of stress rather than let stress take over our lives. Life is all about conquering a series of challenges.
We are stronger than we know. More than we ever know.
Value of Fear: 9 Value Shortlist
- Motivation
- value of fear: you put in the action
- Fear eliminates complacency
- Fear leads to results
- No excuses
- Fear leads to safety and security
- Proper risk management
- Value of fear: it’s an evolutionary advantage
- Fear eliminates pride
