NFA Finance

People ask me all the time about fear.

Fear of starting a business.

Fear of investing money.

Fear of getting married.

Fear of getting divorced.

Fear of putting yourself out there.

I’ve had all of those.

But the biggest fear I’ve ever experienced had nothing to do with business, money, or success.

It was my daughter.

Years ago, my wife and I went through the adoption process.

If you’ve never experienced adoption, it’s hard to explain.

You’re asking someone you’ve never met to trust you with the most important thing in their life.

You create profiles.

You tell your story.

You wait.

And you hope.

The fear wasn’t becoming a father.

The fear was never becoming one.

The fear was never being selected.

The fear was wondering if the call would ever come.

Eventually it did.

And it changed my life forever.

But years later, I learned something about fear that was even bigger.

At one point, my daughter disappeared.

No one knew where she was.

No one knew if she was okay.

No one knew what had happened.

For days, I barely slept.

I lost weight.

I couldn’t focus.

Nothing else mattered.

Not business.

Not money.

Not cars.

Not content.

Nothing.

When it’s your child, the world stops.

Every horrible possibility runs through your mind.

Every minute feels like an hour.

Every phone call makes your heart jump.

That’s real fear.

Not the kind people talk about online.

The kind that grabs you by the throat.

The kind that changes you.

People ask me how I got through it.

The answer is simple.

I didn’t quit.

I kept moving.

I kept making calls.

I kept looking.

I kept learning.

I kept pushing.

I kept doing something.

Anything.

Because when you’re facing a problem that big, sitting still only makes it worse.

One thing I’ve learned in life is that action is the enemy of fear.

Action doesn’t always solve the problem immediately.

But it gives you direction.

It gives you purpose.

It gives you something to fight for.

Whether it’s business.

Marriage.

Health.

Family.

Or chasing a dream.

You get up.

You hit the bag.

You take another step.

You make another call.

You learn something new.

You push forward.

Not because you’re fearless.

Because you’re not.

You do it because quitting isn’t an option.

Looking back, that’s the lesson fear has taught me.

Courage isn’t feeling brave.

Courage is continuing to move forward when you’re terrified.

It’s showing up when you don’t feel like it.

It’s taking the next step when you can’t see the finish line.

And it’s trusting that eventually, one step at a time, you’ll find your way through.

So here’s my question for you:

What’s a fear you’ve overcome, and how did you do it?

For me, the answer has always been the same.

I kept moving.

I kept fighting.

And I refused to let fear make the decision.

— Nicholas Francis