By Sarah Hightower Hill

It is now more than 70 years since Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, uttered the famous words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” These words so relevant even today haven’t lost one ounce of meaning but they may have lost some momentum.

Most of the time, most of the people you know will choose the easy road or the easier road, but success is not often found among the weak hearted and it is never found without some element of fear.

Fear lives within all human beings and is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a basic human instinct to decide to run rather than to stay and fight. Knowing when to stay, leave or fight separates the successful from the rest of the pack.

If you’ve been in the workplace during the last ten years you have witnessed the emergence of desktop technology, the dot.com boom, the telecom upsurge, and the venture capitol/IPO rush for gold. And yet within the same last few years you had a front row seat to September 11, 2001, the dot.com bomb, the telecom shakeout, soaring fuel prices and unimaginable corporate malfeasance. It is easy to understand why most Americans are protectively hanging on to their jobs, sucking it in and keeping their heads down just hoping for status quo.

But this is not where success lives. Success thrives in the moment of change. You are only one step away from challenging peers who underachieve, making that suggestion to your all-knowing boss, asking for that raise or the promotion you deserve, realizing your dream of owning your own business, going back to college even though you’re already in your 40’s, or learning how to market your “other” skills in another industry and making a career change.

Overcoming fears that are holding you back will lead you to the top of the pack. You can’t fear failure because you will fail—at times. You can’t fear change because change will happen. You can’t fear the future because the future will come. What you should fear is not taking that step.
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