The wisest man in history besides Jesus of Nazareth said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7a; 9:10a). Like many proverbs, this one is layered. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom in several ways:
1. Fearing God grounds wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom like the foundation of a house is the beginning of the house. You cannot have a house without a foundation. You cannot have wisdom without fearing God. The strong structure and beautiful home of wisdom cannot exist without the unshakeable foundation of godly fear.
2. Fearing God produces wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom like a spring is the beginning of a stream. The fear of the Lord produces wisdom like an apple tree produces apples. Put wisdom under a microscope and it has the same genetic code as the fear of the Lord. Fearing God generates and causes and creates wise choices, habits, and priorities.
3. Fearing God cultivates wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom like the work of the gardener is the beginning of harvest. The fear of God weeds out hatred and anger and gossip and laziness and plants love and gentleness and healing words and diligence. Wisdom’s fruits are planted with the seed of godly fear.
4. Fearing God summarizes wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom like love is the summary of ethics. Ecclesiastes is a book of great wisdom. Here’s Solomon’s conclusion: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccles 12:13).
Contemporary Christianity speaks little of the fear of God. If you want to be wise, you’ll have to swim upstream. Fear God and you will find wisdom.
davidagundersen.com 
Fear of the Lord serves as a warning or alert system within us, to do the right thing at all times.Freedom House
The fear of God begins with worship of him.
Thanks.
The fear of the Lord is the root of all wisdom, the root of all moral life, the root of the fruit of the Spirit, and the root of all positive outcomes in the life of mankind today and tomorrow. Thanks.
I think, in addition to the good points you make here, that this verse is referring to the mechanics of the conversion experience also.
By that I mean that until a person is shown the wrath of God, against THEIR SIN, by the action of the Holy Spirit, they do not really take it all that seriously, nor do they feel that they are justly condemned to hell.
But, after they are personally shown these things by the Spirit Himself, they for the first time truly fear God, and their desire for a savior becomes all consuming.
To carry the point further, since Jesus Christ is himself Wisdom Personified, as Proverbs 8 makes clear, and also 1 Cor. 1:30 explicitly states,
it is this fear of God and true desire of a savior, that results in honest confession, repentance and prayer for salvation thru Christ.
It is thus the beginning of our obtaining Him, who is Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption, as our spouse, brother, savior, prophet, priest, king, our all, in all
Thanks for sharing; so many teachers steer wide of the teaching on the fear of God. As you have shown, the fear of God is a very good thing for us.