I felt the same way as you before I got mine, but she's still here and healthy so I must be doing something right
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I suggest maybe starting off with a sub-adult, as opposed to hatchling... those babies just look so delicate!
Make sure its cage is well ventilated and set up BEFORE bringing it home, so you can stick him right in his cage with as little stress as possible. Feed him crickets and mealworms, and you can either buy a dripper for water or just poke a hole in the bottom of a tall tupperware (which is what I did). Give him light (I have a fluorescent light that is made for chameleons... the light holders liker 10-15$ at home depot) and heat (I put a large outdoor flood light outside the cage about halfway down pointing into the cage).
For cage furniture, I have a big plant in the middle, as well as plastic vines hanging from the mesh on top, and some sticks for mine to hang out on. I also don't bug her very much - I just let her do her thing since she quite obviously doesn't like being handled. When she's an adult I'll slowly start to get her used to being handled.
That's pretty much, I think - that and make sure the chameleon you get is nice and healthy looking.
Zoe