"Never let your fear be the barrier to your future!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
When I walked out of my corporate job 36 years ago, I was terrified.
I didn’t yet have a mortgage, but my wife and I were newly married and planned to get one soon! I had no certainty that my idea of going freelance would work, and I was pretty scared I might fail. All the while, I was reminding myself that while my career path inside a big global firm was “stable” on paper, I was miserable every single moment.
I had to get out, but my fear told me to stay
Looking back, I now realize that confronting my fear is a natural part of my career pivot.
I went through this fear issue again and again as I continued to pivot. I’d see the need for a change and developed a fear of what it represented. I pushed through regardless. Confronting fear became a critical part of my process.
Throughout this time, I also learned that fear was often a guiding and prevalent issue within my client base when my solo career pivoted from a pure technology focus to innovation & the future.
Innovation? I’ve regularly seen that the biggest obstacle to innovation isn’t a lack of budget or lack of ideas; it’s the collective fear of the unknown. People stay in shrinking markets and outdated roles because the “known” misery feels safer than the “unknown” opportunity. They allow their fear of making a mistake to become the very barrier that prevents their progress.
Trends? When it comes to the future, I’ve learned that vast numbers of people live in fear of what it represents. Trends change careers, disrupt industries, challenge competitive thinking — they cause havoc! And many people, looking at that havoc, recoil in fear of what it represents. The result is they choose to ignore, belittle, or deny the trends. The very fear that drives this reaction causes them to miss the opportunities the future provides. This often means that their fear becomes the root of a misguided prophecy!
But here’s what I also know: confronting fear is a critical part of the pivot process. For me, every breakthrough — from writing my first Internet book in 1994 to pivoting into virtual keynotes and now AI — started with a moment of profound discomfort that was often fear-based. And the fact is, had I let that discomfort dictate my decisions, I would have never achieved much! The Infinite Pivot requires you to acknowledge the fear, but refuse to let it take hold of your future.
Whether you are a leader navigating a shifting industry or a nomadic worker reinventing your skills, you have to realize that the risk of standing still is far greater than the risk of moving forward.
Never let your fear hold you back - let it guide you.
Futurist Jim Carroll knows that too many people see the future as a threat, not as an opportunity - because of their fear of what it represents.