Big Red Car here.  It’s going to be almost 100F and a bit sunny today in the afternoon.  Hoping to get some top down time this afternoon.

So The Boss is having coffee this morning with one of his CEO clients.  Nice guy.

The subject of the CEO’s fears and dreams and success come up.  Typical Boss – CEO conversation?  Haha, Big Red Car, you crack yourself up.

Dreams

If you are an entrepreneur, you are a dreamer.  So dream on, entrepreneur.  Don’t fight it.  Just do it.

Remember what Lawrence of Arabia had to say on the subject some considerable time ago:

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

And that my friend is why YOU are an entrepreneur because you are dreaming with “open eyes” and you intend to make your dreams “possible”.

Stop and pinch yourself, you dangerous man.  This is who you are.  Celebrate it because you ARE different.

Fear

If you are an entrepreneur, you have massive fears.  Fear of failure — sound familiar?  This also comes with the dreams.

Why not?  You are likely doing something that has never been done before and likely are betting more than you own on its success.  Bit of fear is not unexpected.

How comfortable are you with fear itself?

At first, you will not be particularly comfortable and then you will become almost an addict.  If that fear is not in your gut, you will almost not know how to operate.  You will need those fears to provide the fuel — yes, the fuel — to drive you with open eyes toward your dreams.

Ultimately, as you become a successful serial entrepreneur you will not even notice the fear at all.  It will be like a bit of mist on the way to the grocery store, almost not even an inconvenience and surely not enough to even turn on the car’s windshield wipers.  You have become a steely entrepreneur.  [OK, calm down, Big Red Car, you’re starting to scare folks.]

Comfort zone

Every entrepreneur has their comfort zone.  What you are doing as an entrepreneur is confronting and stretching that comfort zone to get it into the part of life in which opportunity and success actually exist.

When you stretch your comfort zone into this area in which opportunity and success exist, you can feel them and taste them and wrestle them into your control.  They become your vassals doing your bidding without question.  All it takes is a bit of elastic movement of that comfort zone.

This is what it looks like.  Click on the graphic to see it at a bigger scale.

Here is a PDF of the same thing Comfort zone.

Pay window

So looking at the graphic you can see the natural growth of your comfort zone into the area in which opportunity and success co-exist until finally you are completely comfortable with your dream, your new business, your great innovative product.

And, then the paywindow begins to creep into your life.  The chance to monetize all of your hard work and genius.  The attendant reward for having taken your wild, crazy risk.

This is, in part, why you do what you do.  What you can’t help yourself from doing.

You can and will do it, so get paid for your trouble.  Remember, you can do a lot more good works with a bit of money in your pocket.

Screw fear!

But, hey, what the Hell do I know anyway?  I’m just a Big Red Car.

Be safe out there this weekend.  Call a pal you haven’t seen in ages and take them out for a beer, a burger and a laugh.  They deserve you.