You can fail publicly and recover; living cautiously for approval can last decades.

Public failure is loud and brief. People notice, and then they return to their own concerns, and you carry on with more information than you had before. Caution kept for the sake of approval is quiet and long, and it can run for decades without anyone identifying it as the thing that shaped your life.

When weighing a visible risk, compare the two honestly rather than comparing the risk to nothing. Ask how long the embarrassment would last and how long the alternative would. That comparison usually points in a different direction than the fear does.