This is a story from a while back, when I had just started Vision framework.

We had to buy a new car.
My beloved Honda reached the state when it’s cheaper to trade it in than to keep fixing it. We did what people who buy cars do: we made lists to figure out the model we like, the year, the cost, the budget. Armed with information, we went to dealerships, checking who can give us the best deal. We collected the offers and came home.

And then I noticed my husband is sitting on the sofa, looking somewhat... off. My beloved is the calmest, most positive and rational person I know. He is the one that always alleviates my fears, telling me that stuff will be OK, it will work out. He has this amazing ability to give every idea, every object, every action, a proper place, so the world makes sense again.

And suddenly I see him anxious and uncomfortable, and I ask what happened? And he answers, “I'm worried about buying the car. I don't know, it’s so much money, what if we’re going to end up with a wrong one, or we pay too much, and this whole “haggling with dealerships” thing doesn’t feel right…”

For a weird reason this conversation made me feel GREAT. Strange, right?

The thing is, I had so much uncertainty going on in my business.

I didn't know if I'll be able to write my blog. I didn't know if anybody's ever going to read it.
What if people that are going to read it you going to think I'm trite, that I'm obvious, that my articles are just plain wrong, or pathetic.
I didn't know if anybody ever is going to buy any of the products of the services I offer, I didn't know if I'm if I'm going to make enough money, I didn't know if I will have to go back to corporate. And live with the burning sense of failure that I couldn't get my business off the ground.

Compared to that buying a car is a walk in the park.

You do your homework, choose your model, see how much money you have, compare it with the cost of your desired car. You go to dealerships, find the best price, test drive the cars, figure out which car you like best. When you have the prices, you do another round, saying this is the lowest price I got, can you match it and make it better? That's it, you got a car.
There's a process you go through, and then you're done. The work is over. Whether you choose a Honda or Toyota or Ford, in reality they're all fine. All these cars are great, so you really can't go that wrong.

For a couple days I was feeling great. I felt validated. My anxieties are legit! If my calm, sensible, wonderful, positive husband can be anxious about a car-buying process, it's OK to be anxious about the future of my business at this early stage.

And then it hit me.
“Find a car” is a PROCESS.
You go through the steps (research-budgeting-choosing-deciding), you end up with a car that you like, within your budget. Using a bit of common sense and applying some effort, you can't really go wrong.

Clearly, running a business is not as straightforward, and you can go wrong. But there actually are some commonalities. There is a process you follow:

You build a system, you follow through, you test to tweak,
you do another round, you get results.

Yes, of course there are risks, and yes, these are much bigger than buying a Ford instead of a Honda. But they are not infinite. If you use common sense, and apply the effort, there will be results.