Fear is a vivid feeling which has the ability to subject us to nothingness if allowed.
When starting a new venture, you would hardly go beyond your mind or take a step forward. The feeling of inadequacy and the thousand things that could go wrong becomes a second nature and this is all due to that shadow called fear.
We hope that by hearing other people's stories of fears and failure, you will learn to move and take that bold step against all odds.
Jason Njoku talks about his strange relationship with fear and why he does whatever he wants to do.
Listen to him
Omotola Omolayo (OO): What are your fears?
Jason Njoku (JN): I have this weird responsibility with fears, I don’t have them.
OO: So there was never a time you were scared and second guessing?
JN: Nope.
You fear things that you cannot control, I assume that I can control nothing. So whatever happens, I just take it as it is. I had this friend who had this idea of herself and really tried to live up to that idea and had long term plans around that idea. The moment she started to waver from that plan, she started being fearful and upset and really nervous. The question is, where did she get that original idea from? That other version of herself?
My wife complains about this all the time. I don’t really have long-term plans. That’s why you would never get a business plan out of me. I’m like “whatever happens, happens. It is what it is, we keep on moving forward."
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If you think in terms of decades, look at the last 10 years of your life, what things really had a big impact on your life? Life, if you have children, the birth of your children, death; if someone close to you dies. Everything else is temporary. So for me, I don’t really fear anything.
If iROKO dies tomorrow, then we will go do something else. That’s why my wife calls me an extremist, that is why iROKO can do incredibly extreme things. That’s why people say things like “what the fuck is going on with that guy Jason?" I can stop the whole company’s direction today and change it without any data or stuffs like that. I’d just be like this is what I want to do and that is what we are going to do.
Because in the end, if you fuck it up, what’s the worst that can happen? The business will die and then what? You will move on! I have been doing this entrepreneurship thing for the past 13 years now, iROKO is 6 years of that, so half of my experience has been in the other ones, and half of my experience is here. The Nigerian way is to hide what they are doing so no one knows. I don’t give a fuck, I'll do whatever I'm doing and just keep on moving.
So if you want to control the outcome of your life and everything you are doing, then you are fearful because what happens if it doesn’t work out?
Techpoint hosted Jason Njoku to a no holds barred live "Ask Me Anything" interview session in March, 2017.
Watch the full video
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