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041BUSINESS columnist Gerald Pietersen tackles the fears attached to entrepreneurship and shares some advice that has helped him on his own journey.

After having a pdf copy of the book, The Atom Habits, I finally resisted feeling horrible about a bad situation I was going through and converted the energy into reading the book.

Two chapters in, I can assure you that I have made the right decision.

Seamlessly turning through the page, I noted a thought stuck in my head. This though was familiar.

It was the same thought I had when the coffee shop started. 

It came across like this, “What are you afraid of?”

I asked myself what I was afraid of when it comes to reading the book, as with starting the coffee shop.

The alarming realisation was that I was afraid of the responsibility. The responsibility to change once I read the book, and to be responsible for staff, overheads, profits, and all in the business.

The one thing that navigated my path with the coffee shop was to know that I am operating from my passion. I have the right people around me to help me succeed and my enthusiasm and grit will keep me going.

Through this, it is important to note that if you are not able to move through faith, you must, even by fear.

Realising that fear was one of the motivating factors in starting the business, it hit me; This is the move that will make the magic happen.

In the absence of faith, use fear to fuel your decisions. Be mindful of all the risks and rewards involved in making business decisions and go ahead, and make them.

Allow yourself to dream and be wild in your thoughts. Take those thoughts and put them down on paper. Once these thoughts make sense and can be converted into a business, use faith or fear to propel you into your next step. When it is written in your destiny, you have no option but to succeed, comes with fear of failure.

Trust me, it is worth the worry!