Wednesday, February 26, 2014

40 Days of Fear

In one of the episodes of Game of Thrones, Ned Stark said: “A man can only be brave when he’s afraid.’’ This shattered my world a little. I used to think you’re brave only when you’re not afraid to do anything.

The one thing I don’t like about being an adult is that I’ve become full of fear. I think too much before I do something, I rationalize possible failures, rejections and pains. I long for the days of my childhood, when I lived fearlessly, without constantly thinking about what could potentially go wrong.

Right now I’m actually living a long time dream of mine: running my own business. I had put off doing it for a long time. I told myself I needed more education, more experience, more time, more savings (just in case I completely screwed myself over) and a “specific” business plan.  

But the main factor that prevented me from becoming an entrepreneur was my own fear and doubt that I could even do it at all.

The idea of running my own business was idealistic to say the least. (Consider all the freedom and control I would have! Imagine doing something I love! And how much of an impact I can have!)

But being an entrepreneur means living with ambiguity, facing challenges regularly, having very little idea as to whether I will succeed or not...Continue on Converge Magazine.

2 comments:

  1. Hi this comment is in response to your most recent article on Converge, called "How Inequality Affect all of US". Just wanted to say thanks for the thoughts, I agree for the most part. A few friends and I are considering a trip to Cambodia to connect with a local church we have some connections to and to help structure some of the initiatives they have already started, including a micro-financing initiative and social enterprise for women coming off the streets. As you are currently living in south east Asia, I was wondering if there is any advice you have for us in any form? We want to provide a local solution that will be sustainable for them in the future and not just an imposed one from what we might think is best. Thanks!

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  2. Hello, Thanks for the comment. It sounds like you guys are in a great project ahead. I've never been to Cambodia. But I guess it must be culturally similar to Myanmar. As far as I understand, micro-finance and social enterprise need a good economic environment, meaning these projects could only thrive in an environment where exchanges are already taken place, and those street entrepreneurs are in need of or in short of resources and support.

    I would personally target places like 'wet markets' where many individuals sell their own products. Most of them are women. I don't know about Cambodia; here in Myanmar, these women borrow money with very very high interest to finance for their daily commodities (interests are ridiculously high that they could never pay back the principle). Those local investors go around and collect their interests daily at the end of the market. ( I'm sorry I'm going too details.) So you get the picture.

    I see many NGOs try to 'impose' micro-finance in areas 'they' think it'll be good and it's not successful.
    I hope it helps. Good luck and have fun in your trip!

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