Human's naturally fear the unknown.
I think being human comes with a natural fear of the unknown. It’s quite normal for children to be afraid of a dark room. When the room is pitch dark they aren’t able to see exactly what’s "lurking" in the room, so even though they know the layout of the room and the furniture and whatever else that may be in it, there’s that natural tendency to simply be afraid of whatever unseen threat “might’ be there. But once the lights are turned on and they can perfectly see the contents of the room, their fears instantly melt away.

Turning the lights on usually does the trick.
The interesting thing is that the contents of the room didn’t change at all, from when it was pitch dark to when it was fully lit. The only thing that changed was the perception of what is in the room. This little analogy translates quite easily to both business and other life situations. Often we find ourselves (particularly those of us who take risks) in situations where the outcome could have undesirable consequences, and unless we have the right perspective our natural fear of those consequences can seriously get in the way of achieving whatever it is we want to do. In the most extreme sense, fear of the unknown can literally paralyze us.

You often will see this fear on the golf course.
One of the easiest places to see fear of the unknown manifest itself, is on the putting green on a golf course. I’ve seen very strong men, who have many achievements under their belt, cower before a 4 foot putt that might be necessary to win a match or maybe a club golf tournament. In normal situations when the putt has no particular meaning, the same guy would step right up and simply make the putt. But when the putt means something (and in most cases the meaning is very trivial) instead of thinking about making it, the stricken guy standing over the putt thinks instead of how he's going to look if he misses. And as you might guess, when this happens you can pretty well be sure that the putt will be missed.

Here’s a drill that’s liberating.
I believe that knowing how to deal with the unknown is a very important key to being successful. This is particularly true with taking business risks. The secret I discovered is very simple. You need to first think about the worst thing that could happen if whatever you’re doing doesn’t work. When you do this I’ve found that it’s important to be as specific as possible, and to nail down (at least in your mind) what you might do in the event that the worst happens. Once you determine the worst possible outcome, accept the fact that in all probability it’s going to happen, then do your best to improve upon the situation. You’ll find that this drill has the same effect as turning the lights on in a pitch dark room. It’s absolutely liberating.

Give yourself permission to fail.
By quantifying the worst possible scenario and accepting it, you give yourself permission to fail. I’ve discovered that this simple thought process allows me to operate without the constraints imposed by the fear of failure.

An extreme example.
The most extreme example I can think of took place early on when I was a combat Marine in Viet Nam. As I described in earlier blog articles, by using this simple rule I was able to completely stop a panic attack and to do a very difficult job (that of a war time combat marine) with a minimum of stress. There is a very important point to be made here. The worst possible scenario I was able to determine was one where I would be killed. As extreme and frightening a possibility as that was, accepting it empowered me to the point where I could function. The negative consequences I accepted during my business endeavors pale in comparison to this. I now know that if accepting death as a possible outcome is empowering, that the rule definitely works.

The gravity of the unknown can get to all of us.
When I was trying to make Parsons Technology successful, from time to time the gravity of my failures would sometimes get to me. It wasn’t that bad because all I typically risked was the cash I actually had, and the available debt on my credit cards. The one exception to this was when I took the chance and borrowed the advertising credit that finally made the company. Before I made the decision to go ahead with this, like anyone else I suppose, I worried about what might happen if it didn’t work.

I think nothing is ever as bad as it seems.
Just thinking about having all that debt ($50,000 was quite a bit for me) and not being able to pay it was spooky indeed. As I thought about the consequences, it occurred to me that the consequences really weren’t that terrible. I reasoned that I was sure to sell at least some software, so if the ads didn’t work, I would owe something less than $50,000. I was also expecting to receive a bonus from my real job in 8 or 9 months that would be in the range of $30,000, and because of the tax losses I would get more cash from a tax refund. I also knew that individual and incremental advertisements were mostly all profit from the perspective of the magazine publishers, so confronted with me not having enough cash to pay them, they most certainly would negotiate the invoices down. So after everything was said and done, I would eventually be able to pay what I owed and be without debt. So the consequences of the ads being a complete swing and a miss, were not all that terrible – particularly after I thought the whole thing through.

Dad understood the situation.
My Dad also helped me out with something he told me. I talked through what I was going to do and what the consequences were. He said that he was proud of me for taking the chance and that if I thought it might work I should go for it. And then he said something to me that I have never forgotten. He said, “Well Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you!” Dad’s point, of course, was that my life would go on just like it had been with the only difference being that I might have a few debts to deal with. He was right. If the worst scenario played out, because of our laws nothing really negative would happen to me or my family. There is no debtor’s prison in America. So I defined and accepted the worst possible outcome and took the chance. As a result, Parsons Technology worked out, and eventually became a success.

This rule also helped me at Go Daddy.
I also used this rule to empower me to make Go Daddy a success. As I described in a prior chapter, for quite a while I managed Go Daddy like I was running a prevent defense in football. Rather than managing it to win and thinking only of winning, I was concerned about keeping some of the money I had from the sale of Parsons Technology. It was when I was confronted with shutting down Go Daddy for good that I put this rule to work.

Having money is easy. Being broke is a bit more of a challenge.
It’s easy to get used to having money. There’s no doubt about it. Money makes many things possible. You can pretty much do what you want, when you want. Once anyone has a fair share of money, I think it’s quite natural to be hesitant to take chances that would cause all those luxuries and conveniences to go away. I think this is why I know of no one, who has made money from selling a business, that has stepped up and risked it all on a new venture.

Losing everything at Go Daddy.
As I described in an earlier chapter, for the first 4 years of its existence Go Daddy had significant losses. As these losses would mount up, I would draw imaginary lines in my mind that would indicate where I thought it made sense to take mitigating action so I would lose no more money. I remember once telling my brother that the company was losing a significant amount of cash, but that I didn’t need to worry about it for two years. In retrospect I now know that this statement was not a bright statement for anyone to make. It was wrong thinking on my part, and the two years I was talking about slipped away in a finger snap. As it turned out, I very much needed to be concerned.

Before I knew it, the lion’s share of my money evaporated and I decided to close Go Daddy while I still had some of it left.

The worst possible scenario found me.
After deciding to close Go Daddy, and letting some time go by, I knew in the pit of my stomach that this wasn’t what I really wanted to do. Then the “quantify the worst possible scenario” rule worked for me, but it did so in reverse. In this case, I never spent time thinking about what was the worst possible thing that could happen. Instead the worst possible scenario presented itself to me, and much to my delight, it really wasn’t so bad.

I always wanted to be a stick man on a craps table.
I was at resort on the Big Island of Hawaii when it happened. I was waiting for my car at the valet. The guy who brought me my car wasn’t much different in age from myself, and he was noticeably happy. Then it hit me. Wham! Of course! If I keep Go Daddy going and it doesn’t work out, and if I lose everything, the worst possible consequence is that I would have to get a job. I thought with a smile that I could park cars and have fun doing it. Then I started to have fun thinking about some cool things I always wanted to do. Even though I’m not much of a gambler when it comes to games of chance (I don’t consider business to be a game of chance, the odds are much to good in favor of the businessman) I always thought it would be fun to work in a casino. I particularly like the idea of being a stick man on a craps table.

Go Daddy turned the corner less than a year later.
So once again being empowered by the “Quantify the worst possible outcome” rule, I flew back to Scottsdale and committed everything I had to making Go Daddy work. Go Daddy turned the corner less than a year later, and I’m doing just fine.

Never allow yourself to worry about the dark.
It’s important to never allow yourself to operate worried about consequences you haven’t defined. The reason for this is that our imagined fears are always worse and more frightening than is actually the case.

Why not increase your chances for success?
So my advice is for you to do like I do. Think about the future as a pitch dark room with the lights out. Take the time to quantify the worst outcome you may have to deal with, accept the fact that that not only could happen, but will probably happen. If you’re able to do this, you will discover that the lights in the room go on, and you will have significantly increased your chances for success.