In the past couple of weeks, I’ve flown twice. Each time I was seated directly behind a young child in the 2-3-year-old range. The two kids’ behavior at take-off couldn’t have been more different.

Though quite normal, the first boy screamed his head off in terror — reminding all on-board of the horrors we face in the wild blue yonder. While the other child, a little girl, was very quiet, and then as we picked up speed and the nose went up she let loose an infectious “Weeeeeeeeee!” followed by laughter that made many passengers smile. Two kids looking ahead at the same unknown, daunting task in two very different ways.

First-time plane rides are a pretty good metaphor for starting something new. We all have this same choice when taking on a new project. Do you run into it with laughter and glee or do you scream with anxiety which, as Seth Godin notes in Poke the Box, is experiencing “failure in advance”?

What do you do at take-off?