What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?
It started with a commencement speech – to graduates of Barnard College. On the podium, to a class of starry-eyed graduating seniors, Sheryl Sandberg asked: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
The message was for students, and yet the question is applicable to us all. Women, in particular, hold themselves back by fear of the unknown: fear of failure, fear of speaking up, fear of being judged.
Why do we harbor so much fear? Why, as we enter the workforce in droves, as we graduate with higher GPAs, as we flourish in so many parts of our lives, are we so afraid?
In the video above, we asked women to describe what holds them backs. The results were inspiring, staggering, motivating.
Part of leaning in is about overcoming our fears to pursue our ambitions – whatever those may be. This blog is about putting those fears out there. It’s about saying them out loud and sharing them with others. It’s about holding them up on a sign – and then challenging ourselves to overcome them.
We hope the women on this blog will inspire you to ask yourself, ‘What would I do if I weren’t afraid?’ And then to go and do it.
–The Lean In team
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