Oh you sit there, looking over your great ideas, looking over your wonderful career plans, and you think about all the mistakes are likely to make and all the things will go wrong. Have wonderful ideas, creative ideas, wild ideas–yet, what if they fail?
You know how it goes. You know that fear.
Well my fellow progeek, that change for failure, for true disaster, is a wonderful testimony to your genius.
Yes, genius. Your fear of failure, fear of disaster, fear of your ideas going down in flames as hot as a thousand suns, all those moments of terror are signs of your brilliance.
Now at this point you probably want me to take several diagnostic tests, if not a breathalyzer test, but I'm quite serious (and sober as far as you know). As a professional geek you need to know this – your chance for failure is a sign of your own genius.
A chance to fail is a sign you're trying. That alone is an important thing – just making the effort on a job, webcomic, career, or more is a sign you are trying. Trying means a risk of failure – and a chance for success. You're making an effort to do something new. That's pretty damn smart and gutsy.
A chance to fail shows you're pushing the boundary. You're in the unknown, and the unknown is where new possibilities are born. If you were doing the same old there'd less fear of failure (if not less chance) – but your imagination and creativity has led you to the edge, and the edge is where new discoveries are made.
A chance to fail is a sign of Not Playing By The Rules. You're doing something different, you dreamed up something new. Sure it may be wrong – but it's new, it's genius, even if in the "dreaming up a big way to fail" kind.
So that fear of failure from your new venture? A sign of genius and imagination.
Go forth, failure or not.