Entrepreneurs and business owners and decision makers suffer more with fear of failure than any other person in business.
So many Clients are seeking to irradiate fear as if it’s the enemy of success. The skill, however, is not to eliminate fear completely, but to understand and work with it. Appreciating where it originates and for what purpose it is showing up. As a Nurse my tutor always told me “never ignore your gut” it’s a form of internal communication. It’s only when we have clarity, we become fearless. And we only get clarity when we fully explore something.
Humans are naturally risk-averse, and fear is a subject that we don’t discuss enough, usually because no one wants to admit their fears or appear as if they’re struggling. Whilst it is possible that talking about fear can create and attract allies, and feel normalised and less of ‘your’ burden. It is highly unlikely to help you in your mission for success. Instead it’s about mindset and motivation.
How can the fear of failure affect my business?
Everyone has a negative voice inside, telling you that you’re not good enough or you won’t succeed for a number of reasons. But your mind is also like a computer and can be reprogrammed to achieve a more positive outlook. This process is not always simple, but left unaddressed, your fears could be affecting your business in a number of ways, including:
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You ‘Play it safe’.
Fear of failure can hold you back and stop you from pushing your business forward. The most successful people in business have all experienced failure and learning how to tackle it and learn to embrace the chance of failure will help you to move forward.
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It prevents you from discovering a more successful path.
If you’re always fearful of different opportunities, you may miss out on something that’s even better for your business and delivers greater success.
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You limit the chance to scale up your business.
Even if your business is doing well, your own fear of failure could stop you from growing the business further and prevent your employees from developing.
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It reduces your opportunity to make more money.
If you’re unprepared to take risks or chances, you could be preventing your business from making more money. If you’re serious about growing your business and increasing its revenue, you need to address the fear factor.
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Fear creates an unhealthy feeling that impacts more than just your business.
As a business owner & entrepreneur, you have many obligations in life that require you to take action and be persistent. However, your fears can stunt development and stall your business. This stress will seep into other areas of your life, including your family life and relationships. It’s essential to tackle your fear to prevent your whole life being affected.
How can I learn to overcome the fear of failure in business?
There are a number of methods that you can use to turn fear of failure into a positive attribute, including:
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Emotional self-control and monitoring.
Emotional self-awareness is a skill that can be learned and means that you are aware of your emotions and can control their influence. Practising this skill regularly helps you to prevent negative emotions from affecting your decision making, your responses and goal setting. Emotions are temporary and created by thought, knowing this helps you to alter perception and control how you behave.
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Planning.
Planning is all about premating objections or potential obstacles. It’s about finding solutions and mitigating risks well in advance. When you have clarity in your mission fear becomes passion and excitement about your business because you’re in control and having the ability to make calculated and informed choices & decisions rather than rapid, emotional ones.
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Learning.
One way to overcome a fear of failure is to gain confidence about your own capabilities. We often forget to reflect positively on what we have achieved and learnt from our past failures. Our personal knowledge is priceless and cannot be read or learnt from a book. This reflection not only reminds us of our own abilities and strength but of the resource and network of others. You’ll never know everything, but there will always be an opportunity to learn and develop yourself further.
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Support.
Being an entrepreneur, business owner and decision maker is a lonely business, and you can feel very isolated at times. It’s important to remember that no one even the most successful people do not do this alone. Most will reach out to mentors for that confidential, and professional space.
How can The Guru Co help?
Everyone is different and therefore, I will create a coaching programme that suits your mission and needs.
We will work on creating a flexible mindset one which allows you to alter your perspective towards ‘bring it on’ and ‘yes I can’. Fear is just an in-built reaction left over from prehistoric times. We were born with only the 2 fears in this world, the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling, everything else we have developed and created, adding our own emotional response to it. If you are nurturing and developing fears in your business let me help you revisit the reasons you started your business and move your focus from fear to action.
Some of the beliefs I’ll help you implement include:
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1. Fear can be Motivating
The physiological and biological changes that happen in your body when you feel fear are the same as those experienced when you feel excitement. It is the same hormonal release for stress, anxiety or fear as it is excitement and exhilaration. It’s important to understand this feeling and use it to approach rather than avoid.
2. Understand how fear affects your business
Fear and a negative outlook can stop you from seeing the positive aspects of your business. Take a moment to look at your business, see the benefits of the services or products that you deliver to customers and the jobs that you’re providing to your staff. You’re contributing not only to your local community but to the world also. The world and it’s demands are always moving and your business needs to keep up.
3. Perfection is overrated
Perfectionism is often a consequence of what most people think is a fear of failure and a desire to maintain control. However, in our world it’s more about being rejected, and bruised egos. We often believe that by doing everything perfectly, the chance of failure will reduce. However, this can hold you back and delay projects because you’re waiting for everything to be perfect and could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Here is a truth bomb … we fail so many times every day but pay very little attention to it. I will help you to learn how to prioritise completion over perfection.
We will speak on a one to one basis, on a regular schedule that fits within your business obligations. Don’t be under any illusions, this process will be tough and I will push you to look into your own behaviour and help you to find the best ways to move yourself forward to get the best out of yourself which will ultimately be evident to the world.
In between our sessions there will be practical and written exercises for you complete. This will help you to cement the knowledge and skills gained in our sessions and to help implement them within your business. In addition, I’m always available via WhatsApp for questions and concerns.