CEO of AIR Aerial Fitness Shama Patel Shares How She Combats Fear
I’ve spent the majority of my life in various states of fear – mostly afraid that I wasn’t enough or doing enough in all aspects of my life: relationships, school, work, even my own well-being. Sometimes the fear propelled me to work harder and other times it crippled me to not act at all, but in either case, I’ve always struggled to shake it.
After years of wishing I worked in an industry I felt passionate about, I finally made the leap to leave my career in the finance industry to pursue my dream of being a fitness entrepreneur. I thought to myself “Boom – I just conquered my fears!” Entrepreneurship brought on a new set of fears, but with that also comes the determination to overcome them. Naturally, I reached out to two of the most fearless #BossLadies I know for advice – Jeana and Maggie from aSweatLife. We embarked on a mission to inspire ourselves and others to move past their fears by hearing from inspirational women in the field.
So, readers, we present to you, #FearlessFridays for the month of October. We’ll be interviewing five incredible women on their entrepreneurial journey, the fears they encountered and how they conquered them.
Our first #FearlessFriday features Shama Patel, Founder of AIR Aerial Fitness, MUD and Floor Lab. In 2010, Shama left her career as a corporate attorney to follow her dream of starting a company that would revolutionize fitness. Not only is Shama growing her fitness empire, she is also growing her family.
Pregnant with her first set of twins, we caught up with Shama at the hospital – at the time of taping she was running her businesses from her hospital bed while awaiting the arrival of her babies.
In our interview, one takeaway rang loud and clear: have passion for the business you are in and confidence in yourself – it will carry you through the tough times and help you power through any obstacles you encounter.