Meditations for Entrepreneurs #21: The Necessity of Worry (or Lack of)

My continuing series: quoting great thinkers who inspire me, then offering commentary on how it connects with the entrepreneurial game. I hope these meditations will help other entrepreneurs play the bigger game. 

“Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose” ― Eckhart Tolle

When leading a business, there is a never ending litany of things to worry about. In the early days, it’s about getting product-market fit and first customers. It’s about getting money flowing in.

As the business grows, it’s about scaling and building a team (and yourself), figuring out how to navigate the inevitable growing pains, while making payroll. 

Along the way there’s plenty of opportunity to worry about competitors, customers navigating their own struggles, and meeting client, investor and team expectations. 

Depending on the company’s trajectory, there may be opportunity to worry about finding an exit that satisfying to yourself, your investors and team.

But worrying on its own simply wastes on of our most precious resources: our mental energy. Our energy can be put to far better use. 

Worrying is about trying to control the outcome. But we cannot truly control outcomes, we can only use our efforts to anticipate events and give us the highest probabilities of success. 

As soon as we acknowledge we are playing in probabilities, we can free ourselves from worry, and focus our energy on our actions.