One of the biggest reasons that businesses collapse, never grow or never exists is the fear of failure. This is one of the biggest cripplers of a company and as such, can arrive at any time. The questions are, what do we do when that happens? How do we deal with it? Dealing with that fear isn’t always easy and there are so many variables to consider that the outcome is usually a very individual matter.
How do the professionals deal with fear?
When that fear of failure presents itself, it can be a big problem for some people, especially business owners. It can hold them back and sometimes result in failure if nothing is done. Similarly, it can save a company and result in a success where they might have done under. But here’s what the professionals have had to say;
“The thought that a business could fail is a ubiquitous one, no matter how big a company is there is always the potential of failure. Fixating on this means that you’re more likely to fall into a trap you’ve created which would result in failure. Now, ignoring the potential of failure is also a huge mistake too. That’s a very easy way to fail quickly, operating with a healthy rick assessment is something that is hard to do but a necessary trait.”
Matt Cooke, Filter Services
“We’ve taken a few risks over the years and in doing so, they’ve paid off. After calculating the chance of failure, mitigating the potential threats to the business we’d decided to go ahead with them. You’ll never get anywhere without taking a few risks here and there, it’ll make it tricky to grow and develop the business. The fear of failure is usually what prevents the success of a company.
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
Many are afraid of the possibility that their efforts to follow an innovative path will lead them to failure and so, they will just keep operating in the same fashion, following the crowd. This will eventually mean that a company won’t have anything that sets them apart from the rest.”
Lee Jackson, Lee Jackson Air Conditioning
“When branching out into the UK we found that there was a real fear of failure here. Doubt in our minds formed and made us think twice before steaming ahead without caution. One thing we realised is that almost everywhere has crime and no matter what it is there’s always a need to protect people. With this in mind, we thought that our monitored CCTV would do just as well as before”
John MacMahon, Re:sure CCTV Ireland
“There is always a fear of failure when it comes to branching out and broadening your product list. The fear of falling alongside our competitors and not having a USP to make us stand out is something that pushed me to make sure we were able to keep going as a company.
It can be a challenge, not only for the company but also to you as a person. Taking that leap of faith isn’t easy by any means. For me, expanding our product range means that we’re offering a lot more than our competitors. But luckily, after a carefully planned trajectory, we grew with our products and managed to pull a large market share in different industries”
Gareth Daves, DSM Stainless Steel Products
“Starting a company from scratch is something that should scare everybody, but most of all excite them! I think the fear of failure is why I’ve succeeded so far. I’ve been afraid to fail and in having the fear develop into motivation, I have a successful career. I’ve managed to push myself and the business while traffic and sales have grown. If I didn’t have that fear of failure, I think that I’d still be stuck at phase one and not getting anywhere.”
Aaron Leo, Dubai Property For Sale
So most business owners would agree that fear can be a great motivator when you’re looking start and grow a company. Using your own fear, facing it and overcoming it is something that everyone has to do at some point and in doing that, you can develop.
How to overcome that fear
Overcoming the fear of failure is something that doesn’t come easily to everyone. While some are able to get over it and carry on with their day to day life, many find it hard to manage that fear and get on with their duties. There are a few steps you can take to make it easier to overcome the fear of failure and potentially succeed in your endeavors.
– Set SMART goals
Setting goals is an easy thing to do, sticking to them that is the hard part. Making sure you’re keeping track and punching your way through it can help. SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based. These will help to get you going, ensuring you’re specific with your trajectory or future is important, you can get the right path and actually walk it properly. Measuring your goals will show how you’ve progressed and how far you need to go. Achievable and realistic fall into similar groups, making sure you can obtain that goal is important, for example setting a goal to turn over 5 million in a month isn’t exactly expected of a start-up company. And the time element is easy, make sure you give yourself enough time to achieve your goals.
– Learn
Learning from your previous mistakes and experiences is one of the best ways to help you plan, mitigate and overcome any problems you might have. Looking back at how to and how not to proceed is a great way to learn how to deal with situations.
– Seek Advice
Asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of, talking to professionals in the same environment as you can be a useful tool. One problem with this is that some people
will offer their opinions even if they aren’t qualified to do so. Be careful who you ask, sometimes hiring a professional can work.
– Planning Ahead
One of the simplest things that everyone should be doing. It’s a simple no-brainer that will usually be some at a half-measure. Most skip things and miss out a lot when working on the business plan and so they run into problems that they struggle to fix.
By Charlie Worrall
