Without a score, there are no rules. Without rules, there are no facts. No purpose other than to show up to survive. Fear is a survival mechanism. That fact alone makes the bank Chairman wrong.
Good people running scared is the result of a job half-done.
It may be the cruelest of all worlds because it eschews passion in the interest of fear. Opportunity in the interest of survival. Fear is not motivating, it is paralyzing. It is high-speed survival, running on the thin fumes of perfectionistic approval. But it all starts with creating the chaos.