If you’re afraid of falling, wear protectors and just deliberately fall a couple of times to test the level of protection and practice falling to build confidence.
I’m bad at sports and use skating to exercise, so I suck and regularly fall ~3 times per hour, but it’s not a big deal at all and rarely hurts. And over time you really learn how to fall in a more controlled fashion, which is a useful skill to have by itself - it’s prevented me from getting injured when I tripped and fell on a hike.

Start slow. A skateboard is like an inch off the ground, in the worst case you can always jump off. Practice jumping off when standing, when rolling slowly and just start to build up confidence like that.

Everyone else has already said it, but I’ll say that if I can do it, you can do it. I’m a huge chickenshit. You really do gradually build confidence just by doing what you can and gradually working up from there.

Always wear a helmet, and invest in a decent setup (doesn’t have to be expensive)

Terrific advice in this thread, definitely start on flat ground (hell i started off practicing ollies in the grass) and wear helmet/pads (some people might give you shit about these; those people are idiots), BUT:

You absolutely will eat shit from time to time, and you have to accept this and be ready for it. I must have tumbled down the side of the bowl 50 times before I finally dropped in successfully, and it was worth every scrape and bruise.

Someone else said “learn to fall.” I’ll go one further and say if you have the means to do so then take a judo or parkour class - they will teach you how to minimize injury when you hit the ground.

Also, it’s not a terrible idea to walk an area before you skate it, and note large cracks/gaps in the sidewalk, scattered bits of gravel, etc. so it isn’t a suprise when/if you run over them.

I am embarrassed at many of these comments I had to read before realizing this wasn’t about ice skating.

Skating’s rad. Longboarding is sweet. Rollerblading is tiiiiight, yo.

Just get the protectors and you’ll be fine. Elbows, knees, helmet, wrist guard, and (depending on your age, if you’re older than 12 you’ll want) ankle reinforcement. If you really want to go all out, hip, back, and tailbone pads are cheap and still not constricting. Are you going to look goofy? Sure. Is everybody else just as goofy? They’re wearing clothes, aren’t they? Of course they’re goofy. Just make sure the helmet covers the parts of the head that are going to get hit, not just the top.

I feel called out, as someone who can’t ride a bike.

Get protective padded pants.