Vision vs. Fear

One of the most helpful mental tools I’ve discovered in the past year is called Vision vs. Fear. I’ve used it in my work and personal life. When facing an important decision or difficult emotion, I ask myself: How am I living with fear? How might I live with vision? 

Living with fear is focusing on what could go wrong and letting that cloud my decisions and behaviors. Living with vision is focusing on what can go right, then thoughtfully making it a reality. I’ve found visionary thoughts and behaviors tend to be better for me. 

I first encountered this idea during a session with my executive coach. It was April 2022 and I felt extremely anxious. Cash was running out, gross margin was negative, and our fundraise was looking gloomy. Five partnership meetings had resulted in zero term sheets. Every time I opened my phone I saw tech doomsday-ing, calls of an incoming recession, and talk of a horrible funding environment. I had a board meeting in a week, and I didn’t know what to present. Thoughts of running out of money had made it difficult to even focus on board prep. My mind was a mess, and I wasn’t thinking right.

My coach Kat then asked me 2 simple questions:

“What are you most afraid of?”

The simple mental math of cash in bank / burn = 5-6 months of runway was hard to get off my mind. I felt stupid to be in this position. Worries filled my mind… “How crappy is it going to feel to need to lay off people? How would we even execute something like that… Everyone is going to think I’m incompetent.” I imagined the awkwardness of a deadpan and silent zoom board meeting as I presented our subpar metrics. Thoughts of failure added to the turmoil of my mind.

“What would a successful board meeting look like, and how would that feel?“

With my deepest fears expressed out in the open, I could finally think constructively. My co-founder and I already had a napkin math plan to reduce burn and extend runway. We’d need to do a lay-off. It would suck and be very difficult for affected teammates, but it was the right action. And by doing it early we’d be able to provide robust severance and conduct it with compassion. Though the equity raise wouldn’t pan out, we’d been talking to debt lenders and were likely to have offers. The board meeting was our opportunity for a hard pivot on execution. This version of the board meeting would feel effective and focused. We’d emerge with shared conviction on a plan and feel motivated to grind it out. 

This exercise was the shock to my system that I needed. Over the next few days we turned our napkin plan into a detailed financial model. We abandoned our cookie-cutter board deck template. In the past we’d had a template deck (metrics, wins/losses, etc) but it took too much time to fill out and was filled with fluff. Challenging times called for simplicity and focus. We created a couple of slides summarizing the plan to execute a lay-off in 2 weeks and extend runway via venture debt. The path forward was clear.

I had shifted from a mindset of Fear to a mindset of Vision. 

Since that session, I’ve applied Vision vs. Fear to many areas of my life: business decisions, social situations, even relationships. It’s useful for situations that are easily tainted by inner anxieties. It allows me to bring rationality to decision making, but in a way that still recognizes the emotional element. 

I simply ask myself: How am I doing X with fear? How might I do X with vision? Here are some examples:

• Overpacking my schedule with social events I’m tepid about (FOMO aka fear of missing out) vs. fully committing myself to 1 gathering with people I truly care about (seeing the vision of a meaningful social experience and that there are many other opportunities to see people)

• Not talking to someone I’m romantically interested in (fear of judgement / rejection) vs. talking to them and viewing either outcome as meeting someone new (vision)

• Frustratingly communicating to leaders that proposed OKRs aren’t ambitious enough (letting the fear of business failure express as frustration) vs. explaining why the next few quarters are make it or break it to motivate ambitious goals (vision)

• Checking and responding to work notifications even when trying to relax (fear of not being “caught up”) vs. recognizing that nearly all notifications can wait and the importance of rest (vision)

As I’ve simmered on this simple concept, I’ve come to believe in the tremendous power of Vision vs. Fear. It’s so easy for our fears to be the primary motivating source in our lives. We all carry traumas, small and large, from our upbringing. Our culture teaches us to climb seemingly neverending ladders of status, fortune, beauty, fostering a fear of being considered less than.

Still, I am optimistic. We are more intentionally examining the psychology of how we work and live. Ideas like Conscious Leadership are becoming more popular in business. Through these movements, we discover ways to live with a bit more vision and a bit less fear.