A few days weeks ago, I hit the Launch button on my Patreon crowdfunding campaign.
Getting there took two years of procrastination, three complete rewrites, and a cohort holding my hand to convince me YES I SHOULD DO THIS - and not only should I do it, I MUST do it.
It's scary to put our work out into the world. It's even scarier to put a number on it, to say "My work is worth this much, I am worth this much". To ask people to see the value not only in existing work, but in future work? To ask them to not just support illustrations or sculptures, but the underlying purpose & message, the dent that your work can leave in the universe -- and to ask people to PAY for that dent in advance?
Freakin' terrifying.
No wonder this launch was so scary.
The fear of being seen. Fears of being judged, not just on my skills, or their worth, but on the worth of my vision, the value of my message. Fears of being snickered at, being labeled self-important, entitled, over-valued, fantasy-prone, a believer in unicorns, unrealistic. Fears that even if I convince you of my worth, I won't actually manifest that worth. Fears about follow-through and ability, fears about failure and success and wasted potential, fears of falling flat on my face, fears of the inevitable "I told you so".
I clicked Launch in spite of those fears.
I clicked Launch because of those fears.
Then I sat down and drew this Qwirk for you.
For me.
For the world.
As I let this experience sink in, with all of the adrenaline and anxiety and excitement, I feel things shifting. And I realized how helpful it was to draw this image, and write out the fears. So I'm going to try and turn this into a wee thing, a process, a play kit, a... something... to be shared first via Patreon. I'll explain more about THAT in a later post, but for now, I just wanted to share this here.
Meanwhile?
I'll just leave the link for you: https://www.Patreon.com/Qwirks
And will you share one of your own entrepreneurial fears with me? I need your inspiration!
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