Feel the Fear -- and Then Move Past It Fear can hold you back, but if you fight through it, the rewards are plentiful.

"Fear is the mother of foresight."
-- Thomas Hardy

I had an idea for a business, and it made me giddy. It was so full of possibility, so compelling and dynamic and burning and beautiful, that I devoted my days and nights to thinking about it. I wanted to make this idea real. I wanted to live it.

And then I got a chance to make it happen. I scored a meeting with Brad Feld, cofounder of Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital and Techstars, and generally just one of the most influential VCs of our decade. Instantly, my veins felt colder. My idea no longer felt exciting. It felt like a horrible secret I'd have to reveal -- like a thing I'd take out of my briefcase and say, in my most pathetic voice, "This is all I have."