Once Upon a Business – Episode 84
The Giant Fear
Lisa Bloom: Once there was a city surrounded by a high wall with only one gateway. One day, a fierce and terrible giant came and placed himself right outside. No one could go in or out. Whenever anyone tried to get close, he reared up, brandishing a huge club.
Hi, I’m Lisa Bloom, the story coach. And you’re listening to Once Upon a Business. In each episode, we explore a story, a fairy tale, folk tale, or traditional story, so that we can discover the amazing lessons relevant for business and for entrepreneurs.
At last, the king himself decided to face the giant. He stepped towards him, but the giant jumped to his feet and let out a thunderous roar. For a moment, the king faltered, but then he took another step. The giant roared again, but the king kept going. And then he noticed a strange thing. The closer he came, the smaller the giant seemed to become. In fact, by the time he reached him, the giant was no bigger than his little finger. Bending down, the king picked him up and put him on the palm of his hand. Who are you? He asked. My name, said the giant, is fear.
This is a story from The Storytellers way by Ashley Ramsden. This story fascinates me. Simple and yet profound. The message of the story couldn’t be more clear. You have to face your fear. The more you ignore it, the bigger it becomes until it’s like a giant waking you up at three in the morning, feeling anxious and causing all kinds of health problems. And the more you face it, the smaller the giant becomes.
It’s interesting that the story begins with a fear that’s not personal. It’s taken over the whole kingdom. The giant guards the city and no one can go in and out. Sometimes as a community, a town, or even a country, we have fears that can be paralyzing. They’re embedded in culture and beliefs and it takes strong leadership to charter a different course for people. That kind of leadership was demonstrated in this story by the king, who decides to face the giant himself.
I love that, and I only wish that we had leaders that were busy trying to overcome fear rather than instill it. There are so many world leaders right now who spend their time dividing their people and instilling fear and hatred so that the giants are ruling our world. And then sometimes fear is justified. It’s a reflection of true danger. And if we didn’t fear it, we would be vulnerable to that danger. We’ve seen this in the world recently, too. When we cease to fear the potential for hatred to manifest in violence and atrocities, we leave ourselves unguarded and open to the actions that this evil can manifest.
I wish this wasn’t the case, that all fear could be looked in the eye and the cause of the fear would cease to exist. But sometimes the giants are real, and they’re cruel and vicious. I think we need to differentiate. Fear can be a giant, that’s for sure. But then sometimes the giants are not the fear. They’re just evil giants, and we can’t see them unless we differentiate what is real danger and what is fear.
As I write my notes today, my children are facing a giant, and it’s brutal. It’s a reality that they didn’t ask for but are connected to and feel a duty to face. For me as I follow their path, I have my own giants to face. And so, as I consider this story, I realize that there may be more than one giant in this situation, the one that’s fear, we can face, and it will become smaller. The others, well, I have to leave that up to my children.
We all have fear. It’s innate to the human experience. In business, it’s clear to see. We often try to ignore fear or run from it to rationalize why we’re not doing the thing we know we need to do but are afraid of. What if we faced it instead? If we could catch that spark of anxiety and instead of turning away, turn toward? Everyone has the experience of avoiding and then finally facing the fear, doing the thing that they were afraid of, and feeling the relief that follows when it’s done.
Eleanor Roosevelt put this well. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. In business, I’ve often found that the fear of the thing is so much worse than the thing itself. In this story, as we said, the king doesn’t run from the giant. He faces him. And interestingly, when he gets really small, he picks the giant up in his hand. The king really claims the former giant. He owns the fear.
I think this is a key part of facing fear so that you can become strong and courageous, knowing that you can defeat fear. As we all navigate our world of fears and giants, there is a path ahead, a way to get into and out of the city. When you feel afraid, spend less time ignoring or avoiding the giant. Thats what makes him big. Instead, turn to face him. Either hell get much smaller or you’ll be able to knock him down to size.
I’m Lisa Bloom, and you’ve been listening to Once Upon a Business. You can find out more about me at story-coach.com. That’s story-coach.com. Once Upon a Business is part of the Mirasee FM podcast network, which also includes such shows as Just between Coaches and To Lead is Human. To catch the great episodes that are coming up on Once Upon a Business, please like and follow us on Mirasee FM’s YouTube channel or your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It’s the best way to help us get these ideas to more people. Thank you. We’ll see you next time.