Afraid to start a business: Beginning While Afraid.

That changes the question you've been asking yourself. You do not have to decide whether your business will succeed, because nobody can decide that in advance. You only have to decide what the smallest honest test of it would be, and whether you can afford that test. Chapter 7 showed you what happened when founders were trained to treat their ideas as hypotheses: many of them stopped sooner, and the ones who continued tended to do better. A small start isn't a weaker version of a big start. It's the version that finds out.

From chapter 11: Beginning while afraid

In 1958, the philosopher Hannah Arendt published The Human Condition. It is a difficult book, and it is not about business. But one idea in it fits this chapter better than anything else I know.

From chapter 11: Beginning while afraid

That is how the book looks at “afraid to start a business”: one idea at a time, with a step you can take right away. Of course, this is only one idea from the book. So, if this passage speaks to you, the full chapter goes further, and it ends with an exercise you can do the same evening.

In short, the book has 11 chapters, and each one ends with a practical exercise. Therefore, you can read it in order, or you can go straight to the part about “afraid to start a business”.

1. The safer road
2. Afraid people see different odds
3. Unknown is not unlikely
4. Nobody checked your fear's record
5. The worst case is written in a law you have never read
6. What happened to the people it happened to
7. When the coward is right
8. Do not calm down
9. The price of the safe choice
10. Courage does not delete the fear
11. Beginning while afraid

Finally, you can get Beginning While Afraid: I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward in the stores below. Because every title of this book shares the same text, you can simply pick the one you like best. Also, the book is available in 19 languages.

In addition, each title below highlights a different idea from the same book.

• Beginning While Afraid: Find Out Which Fears Are Telling the Truth
• When the Coward Is Right: I Want to Start a Business, and Eleven Fears to Check First
• When the Coward Is Right: Find Out Which Fears Are Telling the Truth
• The Safer Road: I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward
• Do Not Calm Down: I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward
• The Price of the Safe Choice: I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward
• Courage Does Not Delete the Fear: I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward
• I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward: Find Out Which Fears Are Telling the Truth
• Find Out Which Fears Are Telling the Truth: I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward
• I'm a Coward: Find Out Which Fears Are Telling the Truth

See all 45 titles. Go to the book page.