Aug 31, 2026 · 18 min · 7 segments
Fear and conviction can look identical from the outside. Only one of them is actually leading. Most owners don't think of themselves as leading from fear, they think of themselves as being careful…
BJ O'NealHost
So most business owners, leaders, entrepreneurs don't really think of themselves as leading from fear.
I mean, who would, right? Uh, that's not something that we're, "You know what? I think I lead from fear." Oftentimes it's kinda happening when it happens, uh, in an abstract manner, kind of in the background.
We think of ourselves sometimes as being careful or being responsible or even like, you know, I'm assessing things and kinda taking things in, I'm absorbing things, I am processing things.
Those are the types of things that we'll not only just tell ourselves, we'll tell our team members, we'll tell our business partners, and so on.
However, there's a difference between wisdom that actually protects the mission and fear that protects ourselves.
Now, for clarity, when I say the mission, I'm talking about the business, the organization.
However, when we are making fear-based decisions, and we disguise and we'll, we'll camouflage sometimes by accident, sometimes subconsciously because of fear, and fear really will do a number on yourself mentally when we're not careful, versus making a lot of those decisions not so much to protect the business, but we're actually protecting us because we're scared, right? We're timid.
And oftentimes we as the business owners, we're the last ones sometimes to even notice, and even when we kinda have that, you know, back of the mind thought, we wonder, or it's the thing that's keeping us up at, you know, late at night, uh, preventing us from being able to sleep kind of thing.
Sometimes and oftentimes team members, vendors, customers, they can kinda see what's going on, and we're oftentimes one of the last to know.
And I know that's sometimes, you know, difficult for us to really wrestle with, but when we, you know, as faith-driven business owners, as faith-driven leaders, when we are growing the business, when we are guiding the business, when we are making difficult decisions, we have to look from a biblical framework.
Well, that's true, but we have to kinda, we'll talk about this in a moment, we have to self-reflect to determine is it wisdom or am I scared of something? Am I fearful of something? Am I nervous about something? And not to say that we can't ever be nervous.
However, that nervousness, that trembleness, that timidity turns into scarcity, and that scarcity can absolutely kinda just put a dart into the heart of you as a leader, okay? And so fear oftentimes will feel safer to follow than actual conviction.
So most business owners, leaders, entrepreneurs don't really think of themselves as leading from fear.
I mean, who would, right? Uh, that's not something that we're, "You know what? I think I lead from fear." Oftentimes it's kinda happening when it happens, uh, in an abstract manner, kind of in the background.
We think of ourselves sometimes as being careful or being responsible or even like, you know, I'm assessing things and kinda taking things in, I'm absorbing things, I am processing things.
Those are the types of things that we'll not only just tell ourselves, we'll tell our team members, we'll tell our business partners, and so on.
However, there's a difference between wisdom that actually protects the mission and fear that protects ourselves.
Now, for clarity, when I say the mission, I'm talking about the business, the organization.
However, when we are making fear-based decisions, and we disguise and we'll, we'll camouflage sometimes by accident, sometimes subconsciously because of fear, and fear really will do a number on yourself mentally when we're not careful, versus making a lot of those decisions not so much to protect the business, but we're actually protecting us because we're scared, right? We're timid.
And oftentimes we as the business owners, we're the last ones sometimes to even notice, and even when we kinda have that, you know, back of the mind thought, we wonder, or it's the thing that's keeping us up at, you know, late at night, uh, preventing us from being able to sleep kind of thing.
Sometimes and oftentimes team members, vendors, customers, they can kinda see what's going on, and we're oftentimes one of the last to know.
And I know that's sometimes, you know, difficult for us to really wrestle with, but when we, you know, as faith-driven business owners, as faith-driven leaders, when we are growing the business, when we are guiding the business, when we are making difficult decisions, we have to look from a biblical framework.
Well, that's true, but we have to kinda, we'll talk about this in a moment, we have to self-reflect to determine is it wisdom or am I scared of something? Am I fearful of something? Am I nervous about something? And not to say that we can't ever be nervous.
However, that nervousness, that trembleness, that timidity turns into scarcity, and that scarcity can absolutely kinda just put a dart into the heart of you as a leader, okay? And so fear oftentimes will feel safer to follow than actual conviction.
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