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1. Get as much information as you can. Research the stock, get the numbers, ask former sky-divers, check with the engineers, survey the public, read as much as you can, find out from the people who've been there before, ask, ask, ask, read, read, read.

2. Trust your own intuition. You may find that the "experts" think the risk is not such a great one, but the people who succeed often go against the experts. All inventions looked "wacky" at the time. Get informed, but don't get negated by soothsayers. All good business risk-takers have researched, but then often gone against the odds. Who would have thought burgers (McDonalds), soap (Body Shop) or discount wallpaper (B.B.Bargoons) would become multi-million dollar businesses? You'll never eliminate the risk, but you can lessen the possibility of failure.

3. An acronym of FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. We often make the "unknown" an enemy and a false belief, which has no substantiation at all. Our perception makes the situation real, our body can't tell the difference, the adrenaline pumps in and we're afraid. We're ready to fight or flee. Think of a potential attacker on a dark street, creeping up behind you. You turn; he passes by. There was no threat, but your body thought so, and your heart is pounding.


Fear is the anticipation of misfortune or pain. Doubt is the unsettled opinion, a matter of uncertainty. Fear is incapacitating. Doubt can be a temporary shadow to your strength.

By getting the information you need to make a decision, finding support from family, friends or colleagues, and trusting your own sense of things, you can change fear to doubt.

Doubt can increase your performance by encouraging you to go the extra step in your research. By planning, preparing and remembering what the potential excitement and payoff is for taking the risk, you can feel encouraged to jump in where "angels fear to tread." There is a point with continuous risk-takers when we recognize, "Oh yes, this scary feeling again. I've been here before."

It becomes second nature to feel the fear, take a deep breath, crunch the numbers or the information (hopefully not the people), then move through doubt to capable. Capable means that you know the worst that might happen, and are prepared to deal with it. The challenge and the excitement are worth it. The potential reward, be it money, new installed information systems, a new team to tackle the project or a new marketing venture, make the sleepless nights irrelevant. You've moved through fear, to doubt, to capable.

You've conquered the inner mountain of your own fear to scale new heights of possibilities.