Between prosperity and the fear of loss
Our country has never been this wealthy — and never so full of fear of losing it all. The paradox paralyzes debates, decisions, careers. A personal story about leaving a corporate job, and why fear…
How possession paralyzes our debates
In a sparring session, a division head says: "We are objectively successful. And still, in every meeting, the fear sits at the table that all of this breaks away. No one says it out loud."
The sentence describes a mood that is not, currently, the exception in Germany. Our country has never been this wealthy — and at the same time never so full of fear of losing it all.
People fear losing their jobs. They doubt the social safety nets, politics, science, increasingly the economic elite as well. They cling to what they have. And exactly this fear paralyzes our debates.
Politics and business like to talk about opportunities. About innovation. About the Germany pace. What hardly anyone says publicly: it won't be brilliant for everyone. There will be impositions. Winners — yes. Losers — also.
I know this from my own experience. Six years ago, I left a corporate job and a secure salary behind, assuming I'd find something new quickly. Then came Corona. What was planned as a break became a fresh start into self-employment. Less income, more self-determination — and a fear of loss that couldn't be coached away, not even by the good arguments that the decision had been right.
That is exactly the point: fear of loss doesn't disappear because one understands it. Even where, objectively, there is enough, it sits at the table. And if it is felt even in a privileged position, how strongly must it act on those with far less room to maneuver?
What fear of loss actually does
Fear of loss is not a character trait. It is a response to the state of the system in which one lives. And it is socially distributed — not evenly, but along the question of how often someone has already experienced that security did not hold.
Whoever is used to security and watches it crumble reacts with panic. Not because the situation is objectively bad, but because the capacity to bear it isn't trained. Whoever has never experienced real loss fears it more than someone who has already lived through one. And whoever has experienced help being promised but not delivered, several times over, develops a particular kind of anger — one that can no longer be calmed by the next promise.
This fear, and the anger it produces, have long since taken their seat at the kitchen table. They creep into voting booths. They paralyze meetings where courage would actually be required. And they often paralyze more than the actual possible loss would.
What this means for leadership
In organizations, fear of loss is the most invisible voice in every meeting. It is rarely named. It shows up indirectly: as the objection that brakes every initiative. As the risk assessment that always lands at the worst case. As the line We've tried that here before, behind which there is no analysis, but an anticipated disappointment.
Whoever cannot see fear of loss in an organization confuses it with small-mindedness. And reacts with pressure. That amplifies the fear. What remains is paralysis with escalation potential.
Whoever can see it asks differently: What is this person protecting right now? Against what exactly? And what form of security — not: of promise — could I offer so that movement becomes possible again?
That is not meant therapeutically. It is operational. Fear of loss cannot be coached away. But it can be taken seriously — and that usually changes more than another motivating town hall.
Closing
To feel fear is human. Making it disappear is not the goal. Taking it seriously without being ruled by it — that is the task. For each individual, and for every leadership operating in a phase where the system does not reliably produce security.
Whoever doesn't make that distinction confuses caution with maturity. And paralysis with prudence. Those are two confusions that will get expensive in the coming years.
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Related perspective on the same topic (German only):
- Angst vor der Zukunft — und wie sie sich in Organisationen zeigt ↗ (on nusselt.gmbh) — the consulting view: what triggers fear of the future, how it shows up in organizations, and how it can be handled better.