You’re an engineer working at a big company. This is how you start an entrepreneurship journey.

Last week, a chemical engineer, computer security engineer and electrical engineer — all now female founders — joined me on stage at the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. We had a room of 600+ women, exactly the kind of group the world looks at and thinks “They are the creators of tomorrow!” But even if you believe entrepreneurship is a vital engine for innovation and progress, we were reminded that if you’re not already doing it, it looks scary, irrational and extremely high risk. Not what a logical, analytical engineer would think, “That’s what I should be doing!”

A woman in the audience sent me this note after our session:

“Thanks for asking the questions I cared about. My parents thought I should just be a doctor or pharmacist (didn’t know engineering was a thing), and now that I’m thinking about starting something on my own, it’ll be hard to overcome my own self-doubt and build something I feel can be impactful. So thank you for taking the time to give me just that much more hope.”

It was a great reminder that the first step in the journey is a having a little more hope.

The path to entrepreneurship is full of smaller, baby steps — not one giant leap. It is clear we need to do more to help people understand why these are steps worth taking and what they look like.

The journey to entrepreneurship doesn’t always mean you have to be one; it can simply mean you’re helping enable it. For example, join a startup instead of working at a big and ‘safe’ company. Answer questions on a friends product survey, or take a call to evaluate some other startup’s ideas. All of us can play a role if not on our own startup journeys, then in supporting others’.

If you weren’t with us to hear it directly, here are some of the questions our founder panelists Lisa Skeete Tatum of LandIt, Masha Sedova of Elevate Security, Parul Gupta of Springboard and I got and a blend of our answers in the hope that it encourages you to take just one more baby step toward entrepreneurship.

Q: How do you overcome the fear and self-doubt?

A: You don’t. You just take the first step.

It won’t feel rational. Your ideas on what to do will change. The fear doesn’t go away and sometimes keeps you up at night. But on balance, the reward and joy of creating something that is yours and has potential for impact outweighs the inevitable tough stuff. You can always go back to your former employer — sometimes, they even promote you because now you have more skills. Later in life, will you regret not taking this risk at this stage of your life? Use customer discovery methods to test if your idea — or the startup you’re thinking of joining — has value to others. See if you can get accepted into an accelerator program where you’ll get a ready-made cohort of peers, support system and advice — as well as some validation. Most important, don’t let the path scare you. It is scary to everyone who is on it, they just decided to do it anyway.

Q: How do you overcome the judgment of friends and family if you’re leaving a good job at a good company?

A: Surround yourself with a support system and sponsors that believe in and help you.

This is your first test if you’re ready for the journey — do you have the courage and conviction to do something that goes against logic, might fail and not consider yourself a failure? It’s important to look inside and feel like you can do this because the process will constantly make you doubt yourself. You’ll hear no a lot. You’ll feel rejection a lot. You’ll think people aren’t getting it. But it is likewise important to test your listening skills and capacity to stay open. Is there something you should be learning that you’re not hearing? Even though you need to showcase your expertise, you can’t always act like the expert. Entrepreneurship is a learning journey. Are you open enough that the people who can help you want to?

Q: What happens if the startup I join fails? How will that look on my resume?

A: In this job market, you’ll look smart/brave/interesting.

Failure is all about what you learn, not whether or not you succeeded the way you envisioned. “I learned how to better judge a founding team,” “I learned a big problem is not enough,” “I learned certain markets are extremely difficult even with a great product,” “I learned I needed to be with a more diverse group of thinkers.” If the worst case is the company fails, you are in the tightest labor market in the country with the most valued skill-set. You will find another job. Just make sure you take the learning out of the experience, meaning genuinely do better next time.

Q: How do I balance doing a startup and having a family?

A: You get serious about boundaries and prioritization.

“Balance” isn’t anyone’s framing — likely, it won’t feel that way. But it is energizing work you want to do, and it is possible to manage all your priorities with smart planning and being unafraid to ask for a lot of help. Masha’s co-founder is home for dinner with his partner and three kids every night and helps with homework while Masha prefers to keep her weekends more sacred. Lisa doesn’t have a task list, she has a success list. She schedules her personal needs first, her family’s second, then the rest is fair game for LandIt. Parul has a young child and has ebbed and flowed her approach with different stages of the company’s. There isn’t one way through, but it is absolutely possible to have a family and do a startup.

Q: What do you do if you have an idea but don’t have [money, time, resources]?

A: Use what’s already in your life as a learning opportunity.

Sarah, an enterprising entrepreneur creating “functional workwear with real pockets” couldn’t afford to be an official part of the massive career fair at Grace Hopper. Instead, she created small postcards and walked the lines of people waiting to talk to Amazon, Apple and AirbnB and asked, “do you have enough pockets in what you’re wearing?” Not only did she hand a postcard out to everyone in line, she got customer research done at the same time. I was wearing an Argent suit — which I’m a huge fan of because of their pockets and colors — and turns out to be the premium brand in the ‘workwear with pockets’ space. We had a discussion about the market landscape in front of a dozen people. Now we all know she knows her category, has a vision and want to see how what she’s doing is different. This is what being an entrepreneur looks like in the early days. You wing it wherever you are. You are in a zone of discomfort all the time. But you’re constantly learning and using guerilla tactics to take advantage of whatever opportunities come your way.

Q: I’m interested in [area X] or how do I find a startup company that is a good match?

A: Check out AngelList, Glassdoor, Crunchbase, Key Values.

Come up with an initial list using the above resources, then spend time thinking it through with trusted people in your network. The venture backers behind the companies also matter a lot. If a startup has “institutional early stage VCs” it means they’ve had a tremendous amount of due diligence done before investments have been made. Don’t just look for name brand firms you recognize. Look at every backer and check out how they seem to operate. It will give you a sense of what the founders looked for in whose money they took. Did they look for good partners? Are they getting good help? Who is sitting on the board providing guidance? All these things matter.

Q: If I have an idea, how do I find a co-founder?

A: Let the world know you’re looking and “date” co-founders over time.

Best co-founding teams are (in order) 1) co-worker 2) “stranger” 3) friend and a very steep drop-off to 4) family. You have to be able to have challenging conversations and resolve them, even if you disagree. You have to hold that person in highest regard and be able to continue to respect them even when you see things differently. Look for people with complementary skills, not the same as your own so you make a good team. Both of you will be doing things you haven’t done before. You’ll want to be able to divide and conquer. You also have to have shared values and shared work ethics. Founders pick up the slack and do the work that falls through the cracks, which is sometimes mundane (like cleaning the office!) but needs to get done. Make sure this person will do that work with you.

Q: Should I go directly to a startup or do some time in an established company first?

A: Get your card punched.

It’s important to get external validation that you do good work in some form. This can be going to a brand-name school getting a STEM degree, an internship you did for a compelling company where you created something with real traction, or working for a well-respected company where you see operational excellence first-hand. You don’t need all of these together, but you need at least one.

A few final notes of encouragement. Last year, 2% of all venture investment dollars went to female founders. According to Crunchbase, the percentage of female founders has plateaued globally at 17%. As Melinda Gates announced on October 2nd, “#EqualityCantWait and no one in a position to act should either.” So take that first step!