I keep a plaque hanging above  my desk that says “What would you attempt to do if you could not fail? I am now at a turning point in my life. At 60 I have to make a choice on my career.

All of my life I have made many choices out of fear. Or should I say I have made many choices because of fear and it has stopped me in my tracks from accomplishing becoming all I could be.

This weekend I remembered who I was in my youth. I believed I could do something and I did. And then I stopped. I stopped long enough to listen to those that told me it couldn’t be done. I listened to those that put up roadblocks for my life. I listened to everyone else but myself. I became afraid of failure instead of moving through failure to new beginnings.

One of my favorite authors Leo Buscaglia once said “We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just the other side of failure.”

I believe that is true. If we have no failures how can we know success?

At 60 starting a new business is daunting. Fear says to me “It won’t work.” Fear says to me “You will be homeless if you don’t succeed.” Fear says to me “Stop. Give up. You can’t do it.”

Can I look fear in the face this time and say “You are wrong. I’ve already conquered you.”