From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Gabrielle Union on moving past fear-based decisions

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Gabrielle Union on moving past fear-based decisions

- In those early days, when you were just starting to be an entrepreneur or just starting to invest. What was it that you were, When people brought you things you were just saying yes to everything? I mean, how were you doing that? - I was saying yes to most things. I mean, at the end of the day, Black actresses were not getting the same opportunities. We didn't even know about these investments. We definitely weren't asked to be consultants or on the board or literally anything. So anytime you got any opportunity, you're saying yes because you're so used to crumbs. Anything they throw your way, you're like, "Yes, I better take it." And if they ask me today, they probably will never ask again. So I got to strike while the iron's hot. And that really has boiled down for me into just being terribly afraid of failing. Being terribly afraid of there wouldn't be enough for everyone. So I have to say yes, no matter what. - And I know you do a lot of mentoring. What do you tell people who are in that same situation? How do you get people to leave this fear of failure mode? - Scared money don't make any money. And it's the same for how you make life decisions. When you're moving through this world in a cocoon of fear. Where everything is really motivated by your fears, you have no idea who you are. So all your decisions are not going to benefit your soul. They're going to benefit the shell of the person that you send out as your representative. But it's not really going to feel great. It's not going to be that kind of job or opportunity where you go to sleep so excited about it and happy about it and at peace with it. And you wake up with that same sort of enthusiasm. When you do things out of fear, it doesn't alleviate those fears. It actually exacerbates them. And it usually doesn't lead to the best working environments. It doesn't lead to the best investments. And it certainly doesn't lead to having great experiences as an entrepreneur at all.

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