Success Has Two Hands
My First Published Poem
Success has two hands.
One is named Fear.
The other is named Growth.
Sometimes Success wraps a hand around my throat.
Fear steals my breath,
keeping my feet planted where they are,
convincing me that standing still is safer than moving forward.
Other times,
Success reaches for my hand with Growth,
guiding me toward the version of myself
I’ve been too afraid to become.
When Success leads with Growth,
we move together.
When Success leads with Fear,
we both freeze.
Some days,
Success struggles too.
It uses both hands
Fear tightens its grip,
while Growth reaches for me
but can’t quite pull me free.
My throat closes.
My chest pounds.
Fear outruns every thought
while Growth waits for room to breathe.
Success and I know this fight well.
Just when I begin walking beside Growth,
Fear interrupts,
and I mistake hesitation
for failure.
But eventually,
Success loosens Fear’s grip
and finds my hand again.
That’s when I realized
Fear and Growth were never enemies.
They’ve always belonged to the same pair of hands.
Growth doesn’t arrive
after Fear disappears.
It arrives while Fear is still holding on.
Since Success and I understood that,
our grip has softened.
Now, when it reaches for me,
I don’t choose between its hands.
I take them both.
Because every time I hold Fear and Growth together,
Success walks beside me.