The Fear of Failure, Paulo Coelho

Berghs Scool of communication in Stockholm sent me an email to discuss the fear of failure.

And I remember every time I had to present a thesis or a paper, when my schhol asked me to do this, I said, “I have to please my teacher. I had to follow exactly what she or ge taught me.”

That was the wrong approach in my opinion.

So one day I decided to write about things that really touched my heart.

And I remember while I was studying law, that they asked me, I don’t remember exactly what to write the paper for, but I decided to write about Caligula.

The Roman Emperor. And his constant struggle between our good part and our evil part.

And I wrote about Caligula and I said I’m lost.

No body’s going to accept this. I’m going to be, not punished but they are going to give me a very very low degree and it happens exactly the opposite.

They said, “Oh this is quite original.”

And I tell you why I just wrot about Caligula because I was fearing not to follow the teachers instruction.

And at the same time I said I have to break this idea because I have something different to say.

The subject is important but you didn’t really need to follow the guidelines, because the guideline at the end of the day is just to discuss the subject.

So this Caligula paper for me was a turning point and since then my fear of failure, that still exists, because we don’t get rid of this in your lifetime.

But I’m never paralyzed by my fear of failue. I have, but I say,”Ok, I’m doing my best.”

And from that moment that I say I’m doing my best of course I can after sending a new book or a new article or whatever I sent to the publisher or the news paper.

I sit down, I breathe and I say I did my best, I put all my love, I did it with all my heart.

So whether they’re going to like it or not, it is irrelevant, because I liked it. I’m committed to the thing that I did.

And so far nobody has ever refuse it or criticized it.

Because when you put love and enthusiasm into your work, even people didn’t see it, they realize that it is there.

That you did this with all your body and soul.

So what I encourage you to do this. And don’t worry about the fear of failur, it is a human feeling.

The important thing is to move beyond this fear dan to do what you think you should do.

Semoga bermanfaat. Aamiin.

Source : http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/06/17/fear-of-failure/