The Fear
“When a slave cannot be whipped he is more than half free. He has a domain as broad as his own manly heart to defend and he is really a ‘power on earth.'”
Douglass, Frederick
My Bondage and My Freedom
What if you no longer submitted to the threat of getting fired? Or you could ignore criticism? Or if you knew you’d be alright if you got dumped? Or if you finally realized that life was going to work itself out so long as you kept your head about you? What if you lost the fear?
That’s a different kind of freedom. I am starting to think that it makes you better at all those things
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and other books about marketing, culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared everywhere from the Columbia Journalism Review to Fast Company. His company, Brass Check, has advised companies such as Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as Grammy Award winning musicians and some of the biggest authors in the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.
You have a knack for writing exactly what I need to read, exactly when I need to read it.
Thank you.
Ahahaha, then you’d have a scenario like in Office Space.
Short and simple. Yet the message is fucking sick because its so powerful. It one thing to read it. Yet if people actually put these concepts into use ACTIONS in their lives, I know the world would be vastly different. The world would open up to those that consistently practiced these ideas! So simple – so powerful.
It seems to me those are all secondary effects though, and as far as I can tell they flow out of something that has nothing to do with rationality. We can think about it all we want but we might never find the answer unless we start looking a different way.
I hear where you’re coming from. Whenever I get that feeling it feels like a combination of two things. One, I feel a huge sense of empowerment. And two, I become insanely focused. Similar to the feeling you get during a really awesome run when you start getting tunnel vision. I can easily say that the combination of these two feelings at once is probably the greatest thing imaginable.
Rockefeller’s father used to fire people completely randomly, then rehire them a couple of weeks later, just to let them know they weren’t indispensable. Without the fear of losing their job, workers work less, and you get France.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand you’re also talking about not fearing losing one’s job because you’d always know you’d be all right, but then, you really can’t always know that.
I also get that you’re trying to say people can take control of their lives when they throw away the fear, and I think you’re correct about that. But then, beating that fear, like beating the fear of death, the unknown, any fear, really, is difficult, and requires a surrender most people can’t make.
Maj,
Scare tactics work on some, but I think it creates a sense of resentment. I’m doing my job well and you decide to randomly fire me? WTF? As soon as a better or even equal option comes along, I’m jumping ship.
As far as beating the fear, I don’t think anyone suggested it would be easy.