The fear of screwing up rarely goes away forever, but you have to find a way to separate it from your ability to make progress. You create the right product or service. You find a market of people, even a small one, that wants to pay for it. I always tell people who are beginning a creative career to go back and look at the early work of people they admire. If you come across a successful blogger, designer, or artist, especially one who's been able to generate a full-time income from their creative work, it's easy to be intimidated. That's why you should go back to the beginning--see where they started, and see how it all began. When you do that, you'll be able to see the progress along the way, most likely including a few mistakes. In my case, the compass points are independence and gratitude. Much of AONC has been built on an anti-authority construct, the idea of being "self-employed for life" and answering to no one. I still believe in this value. There are far too many people who feel trapped in dumb jobs. They need to escape! But I've also tried to branch beyond "anti-authority" to being for something. I want to contribute something. I want my life and work to matter. Forward, Onward The other part of obtaining creative freedom is sheer perseverance. Just kept going! Seth Godin once talked about his failures in the context of eventual success: "If I fail more often than you, I win." That's how I feel. Failure sucks but failing to try is far worse. The life of creative freedom is worth fighting for.