Managing fear when you leave a comfortable job

The entrepreneurs in transition I work with are rarely afraid of failure. They are afraid of what others will think, afraid of disappointing, afraid of no longer knowing how to answer the question: "what do you do?"

This social fear is underestimated. It settles quietly, fuelled by an environment that values status over coherence. Treating it starts by naming it, then by surrounding yourself differently.

I always advise my clients to build, in the very first weeks, a small circle of peers in transition. Not to reassure each other — to confront people who no longer play the same game.

The fear doesn't disappear. It becomes a travel companion. And one day, you realise it is pointing exactly in the direction to take.