Ranjay Gulati

And let me tell you where it goes back to.

The larger point is fear is a natural human response.

It's biologically hardwired in us.

It's a primitive emotion that activates the amygdala.

It's the survival impulse.

So we need it, but it paralyzes us.

And so much of our life, so many things we do, whether in one of your episodes, you talked about silence, being quiet, not speaking up.

even having worry, anxiety, all these things tie back to fear.

There's a diffuse manifest fear.

And we don't have a way to cope with fear.

Winston Churchill said, fear is a reaction, courage is a decision.

So what I came to realize is that if any of us, myself included, I'm going to live a more complete life, I need to find a way to learn to live with fear, engage it, not be ashamed of it.

And this ability to learn to accept fear for what it is, but not be overwhelmed by fear, was the journey I had to go through.

And I was trying to understand it better as I wrote this book.

Because, you know, too many of us live our life through a lens of fear.

There's no easy answer to that, first of all.

So let me first start with the point of origin of fear, and then I'll get to your point, actually.

Where does fear come from?

Fear originates in uncertainty.

What is uncertainty?