The one thing that surprised me most when I decided to leave Corporate America in pursuit of a bamboo and hardwood online flooring business was the sheer number of colleagues that reached out to share their similar entrepreneurial ambitions.

In some instances, my colleagues had fairly mature ideas—they had already gone far in pursuit of their own businesses, but still loved the security of a paycheck. In other instances, they knew they wanted to leave Corporate America, but weren’t sure where (or what type of business) to start.

One thing became clear to me— as passionate and ambitious as my colleagues were, their fear of failure was paralyzing.

What is so scary about failure that we get pits in our stomachs at the mere thought of it and are willing to live our precious lives in the “safe” zone?

What Are We Really Afraid of?

We’ve all failed at plenty in the past. When we look back at those instances, we rarely get hung up on the fact that we failed. Likely, what you remember is that you learned something about yourself that made you a better person for trying.

So what is it that we’re really afraid of?

It seems to be all the things that failure implies that may be holding us back. And if you find yourself on the cusp of entrepreneurship, but are scared to take the plunge consider asking yourself these 5 questions:

If you were to fail …

1.Would you be homeless?

Probably not. I’m sure most of you have a best friend or loving parent who might take you in until you’re able to get on your feet. If you’ve done your financial homework prior to making the leap, you should even be able to stay put in your home while you execute your next move.

2. Would you go hungry?

Again, probably not. Grandma and Grandpa would love to have you over for dinner a few nights a week. You should also be able scrape up a few dollars to buy a package of Ramen Noodles at your local Dollar Tree. Sure it’s not as good as gourmet sushi, but you have to admit it — it can be tasty!

Oh come on– it was good enough in college!