Jerry Snover: Why Fear Keeps Us From Our Best Work

In this episode, Pat sits down with Jerry Snover, a friend since freshman year at Union College in 1985, for a wide-ranging conversation about fear, creativity, and reinvention. Jerry grew up on Long Island in Bayshore, was a shy, quiet kid who came out of his shell as a runner and later as a musician, and eventually built a career in wealth management and real estate while quietly nurturing a parallel life as a guitarist and bandleader. After a stint living and playing music in Japan in his twenties, Jerry set the guitar down for over two decades to focus on career and family...only to pick it back up four years ago and rediscover it with more joy than ever, now performing with his band, Birdsey Beers.The conversation digs into what actually holds people back from pursuing what they love: fear of failure, the need for social approval, and what Pat and Jerry both trace back to a kind of evolutionary fear of rejection and "tribal" ostracism. They talk about confidence versus timidity in performance, the value of a philosophy degree in learning to think and argue carefully, growing up religious and later examining belief systems with real curiosity, and the deep, easy trust that exists between old college friends decades later.