Have No FEAR – Fear Will Waste The Entrepreneur’s Time

Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 01:20pm by David Askaripour in Life

As human beings, many of us have fear. We may fear public speaking, fear disapproval from our parents, fear getting bad grades in school, or, of course, fear death.

Same thing goes for entrepreneurs, we have fears as well. But in our case, fears can prevent us from reaching success and accomplishing what we have set out to do. Fear can lead to the entrepreneur’s demise.

Here are some common fears that I see many entrepreneurs facing:

1. Public Speaking

   This one is a killer. So many entrepreneurs are extremely fearful to going up on a stage and talking about their company. Also, ever go to a entrepreneurial gathering and look around the room and see those entrepreneurs sitting alone and not talking to a single person? Com’on guys, snap out of it!

   We have to fight though our fear of speaking to people and sharing what you have to say. It’s imperative that you are able to speak to groups of people about your business and even being able to network with strangers at gatherings. This is crucial to your success. Take a risk, start taking to people and see what happens.

2. Failure

   You can’t be scared to fail. This is probably the largest hindrance for young entrepreneurs — the fear of never making it. You have to understand that we aren’t perfect and failure is — believe it or not — an ingredient for success.

   Embrace failure. Use failure as fuel. Failure teaches us how to come back stronger. The greatest men alive have all failed in pursuit of fulfilling their dreams. Without their failures, they wouldn’t have learned to improve, revise, modify, and solve the problems of the world.

   Failure is your friend, not your enemy.

3. Rejection

   Don’t be scared of the word “no.” It’s only a word and doesn’t mean anything. As an entrepreneur, you’re going to hear the word “no” over and over and over again.

   Potential partners are going to reject your ideas. Venture capitalist are not going to believe in your company and decide not to invest. Customers are going to say no to your service. All of these things will surely happen, no doubt.

   But you must build up immunity for rejection. In order to succeed, you have to have thick skin and be able to keep on pushing forward no matter what anyone says to you. You can do ANYTHING you want. Ignore ANYONE that says otherwise.

If you find yourself being fearful, you have to fundamentally change the way you think. A mental shift must take place and you have to accept the reality of the matter. The reality is that no matter how many rejections you receive, or how scared you are to go up on stage to talk about your company, or how scared you are to fail, that none of these things are going to have a negative impact on your life if you “just do it” and don’t succeed.

In other words, you have to start thinking in terms of “so what” and “who cares” and not be worried about the outcomes of your actions — fight through your fears and allow them to melt away. In time, you will see that they are irrelevant and only serve to keep you immobile as an entrepreneur.

You only have one shot — one life — so don’t mess it up by letting your fears get the best of you. Fears will keep you on the sidelines and out of the game. Be courageous. Stay in the game.

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