How Fear Stops Your Success.

I was recently speaking to a friend of mine who said he wanted to go to the gym. But two things were keeping him back.

The first thing was his fear of this particular gym. He didn’t like some features of the gym and was afraid that it wasn’t safe.

Second, he didn’t like the position of the windows and didn’t like people being able to see him work out. These are two fears he had, reasonable fears.

However, the two fears he has are keeping him from what could be a bigger need of his and that’s his health. He knows he needs to be healthier and a good diet AND exercise are a part of that process.

In business we all face fears, what do you do with those fears? Does it provide you from realizing your success.

Some have fears, just about if they should even START a business. This fears keeps them in their day job and prevents them from starting a business. Of course before you leave your job, consider should you start a business.  I was afraid to leave the United Nations, where I worked for over 10 years. Finally I got fired.

Other fears we have are about when to hire someone, when to fire someone, when to get a loan, when to expand and more.

Sometimes fear is a GOOD thing. Fear stops most of us from driving too fast for example.

But then there’s fear that is PARALYZING fear.

Seth Godin writes about this often. Read his book “What To Do When It’s Your Turn“. Perfect will never come, if you’re fear is that it’s not perfect and you’re afraid of launching you HAVE to get over it. Read his blog post about abandoning perfection here.

If you’re fear is that you might fail, take a smaller risk and fail fast and soon.

But what about the FEAR of success? Some are afraid that if they’re too successful they won’t be able to service customers.

Listen, there are ALL KINDS OF fears, I get it, but you MUST conquer your fears so you can taste success.