Despite what the motivational quotes say, sometimes you should let fear stop you

I have quite a few entrepreneurial-minded friends on social media—ones that pride themselves on values of being self-sufficient, going against the grain, and facing their fears, which are all good qualities for being successful in business.

Unfortunately, I have seen several of these people misapply empowering business mantras about fear to our current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic situation. Phrases like “Don’t let fear hold you back from doing what you need to do!” and “Fear just stands for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’” (note—that is a made up acronym and is in no way the origin of the word) are being thrown around as a justification for people to not take precautions against a contagious respiratory illness.

Positive entrepreneurial mantras about fear are directed to fear of pain to one’s ego or emotions. As in, you shouldn’t have fear of public speaking just because you don’t want to be embarrassed, and you shouldn’t have fear of making sales calls because you don’t want to be rejected, or you shouldn’t have fear of starting a business because you might fail and feel like a failure.

These are NOT applicable to justifiable fears about your health and safety. While some types of fear are evolutionarily hard-wired into your brain to protect your feelings, other types of fear are there so you don’t DIE. Like, you should be afraid of touching fire or holding a venomous snake or exposing yourself to an infectious disease.

No matter how much you are ordinarily empowered by these anti-fear motivational quotes to make that speech or knock on that door, DO NOT rely on these quotes to justify ignoring the recommendations of public health officials about the dangers to yourself and your community.

Don’t say “successful people don’t let fear get in the way!” to justify not canceling your large business gathering and forcefully shaking people’s hands. While such actions might align with your identity both as someone who “overcomes their fears” AND someone who “doesn’t do things just because everyone else is doing them,” it is not prudent based on the fact that there is a new pandemic that is impacting all aspects of everyday life.

When making decisions, always apply facts where appropriate. You can apply motivational phrases where appropriate, but make sure to distinguish when they are in fact appropriate or not.