Faith, Hope, and Fear: Prepared for Failure, Ready for Success.

’m not very positive. Some consider me an anthropological pessimist. I see myself as constructively pessimistic—or a realist. Whether it’s due to genetics or professional conditioning, I’m not sure. As an entrepreneur and business owner, you map out potential future scenarios. You quickly learn that it’s wise to err on the side of caution.

In such circumstances, I usually lean toward a pessimistic scenario, thinking that if luck, fate, or life favors me, all the better. Ready for failure, prepared for success. This often means that when people ask me what I predict for the future, I tend to offer a view they consider pessimistic. To me, it's realistic.

This is largely because I’ve learned to distinguish between three things: faith, hope, and fear.‍‍

‍Understanding Fear‍

Many people feel fear when facing a difficult future—fear of what’s to come or what might happen. It’s an emotion generated by our brains in response to a situation that doesn’t yet exist. It’s about something that hasn’t happened yet. That’s why it’s called "preoccupation." Ultimately, it doesn’t make sense to fear monsters.

To counteract this, we often resort to hope in our imagined mental game.

The Double-Edged Sword of Hope

Hope is the feeling we create in our minds that something will turn out in our favor in an uncertain future. I can assure you that it is a product of our imagination. Fear is the flip side of hope, and hope is the other face of fear.

They are two imaginary mechanisms that help us in times of uncertainty. But they can be dangerous because they can stop being mere emotions and become the lenses through which we view reality or the future. Hope and fear are remarkably similar to me, precisely because they skew our calculations.

• Wishful thinking is the act of confusing our desires with reality, assuming everything will turn out as we hope.
• Fear does the opposite, making us believe everything will unfold exactly as we dread.

Both can lead us to act incorrectly, which is extremely dangerous, whether it's resting on our laurels (“everything will work out as planned”) or overreacting (“I’ll sell everything because the apocalypse is coming”). Neither extreme is the answer.

Faith as the Middle Ground

In times of uncertainty, like everyone, I experience both fear and hope. But knowing how both distorted my view of the world, I’ve sought something in between that aligns with my personal perspective: faith. Not religious faith, but empirical faith—the kind that stems from one’s personal journey.

Many people confuse faith with hope, but they’re not the same.

• Hope is the feeling that everything will turn out fine.
• Faith, on the other hand, is the belief that whatever happens, it will unfold as it was meant to. No matter what occurs.

Faith in Yourself

Faith is the belief that everything happens as it must, and no matter what, you’ll persevere. I know this. It’s not a rational point—which is precisely why it’s faith. If you have concrete reasons to believe everything will be fine, you don’t need faith. But when you don’t—as is sometimes the case for me—I search through my memories and emotions to find that point reminding me:

• If I’ve made it this far,
• If I’m here despite everything,
• I’ll do it again.

I’ll succeed again. So have faith in yourself and act accordingly.

Let Go of Fear and Hope

Don’t fear what’s ahead. Don’t cling to the hope that everything will turn out exactly as you wish. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But no matter what happens, you can always count on yourself. You don’t need boundless self-esteem or confidence. It’s enough to have faith in what you’re capable of achieving.

Where to find me

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NachoLucea
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nacholucea/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vRcumzUfp1vL55aUdlmtg
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ignacio-lucea