What kind of fear? No, not the kind that prevents you from hopping on a motorbike going 100 mph down the speedway, which is likely what Felix does before breakfast every morning. I'm talking about "good fear" — the kind that drives you to do the really hard things because if you didn't, you couldn't live with yourself. Like many of us, Felix was fearless and fearful at the same time. At one point, he was so scared about the mission he literally fled the project for several months.

So what did the team do? They found a replacement. And what happened to Felix? He got jealous and returned to the mission. The leaders of the mission knew to tap into that one fear that drives greatness - the fear of regret. It is not a "bad fear" which is the kind that limits you; it is a "good fear" because it motivates you. Can you imagine how Felix would feel if someone else had accomplished what he set out to do?

-- Betty Liu

This quote was extracted from Betty Liu's article "Career Curveballs: Fear Can Be a Powerful Friend" on LinkedIn