How to Get Rid of Your Fear of Failure
I was sitting with my sister and her partner (in business) and brainstorming a new idea that we had for creating a new program for women in business that wish to create a breakthrough in their business.
Both my sister and her business partner are having a business more than 8 years. However, they still feel that they “don’t know enough” in order to truly create a breakthrough and become as big and as successful as they think they could be.
We were talking and I was describing all kinds of ways that in today’s New Economy women can benefit so much and grow their business, IF (and that is a big IF) they would let go of their concepts and ideas about what is business, how you do business, what it takes in order to be successful in business etc..
As I was talking to them and mentioned a few of the possibilities that the New Economy had opened to us (such as social media = relationship marketing and not push marketing; crowdsourcing = collaboration and not competition; crowdfunding = community and not “on my own” and more), as I was talking about it my sister said something that made me stop.
She said – “But with all due respect Vered, before I would use any of those techniques I need to make sure that I would not fail in them because if I fail… what would my clients think about me, worse, I would feel like a failure and would not have the energy and courage to keep on going”
Does that sound familiar to you?
So many women are so scared of trying out new ways of doing business under the excuse of “I don’t know enough about it, I better go and learn it before I try it out”
I’m not against learning. On the contrary I think learning is crucial for your growth. However, when it comes to business the best learning you could have is…. DOING!!!
Too many women are trapped in this vicious circle where they keep telling themselves they don’t know enough and they need to keep on learning before doing anything.
When it comes to business, especially today, when everything is changing so fast, you need to learn WHILE doing.
No more 3 years study before you try a new technique, a new strategy a new method. Research it, take a course and then… go out and try it out.
That would be your best learning ever!
The only reason you are not willing to do it is your fear of …FAILURE!
So let’s start treating failure in a different way.
Start treating failure as a scientist.
How does a scientist treat failure? And what can we learn from their approach?
When a scientist runs an experiment, there are all sorts of results that could happen. Some results are positive and some are negative, but all of them are data points. Each result is a piece of data that can ultimately lead to an answer.
And that’s exactly how a scientist treats failure: as another data point.
This is much different than how society often talks about failure. For most of us, failure feels like an indication of who we are as a person.
Failing a test means you’re not smart enough. Failing to get fit means you’re undesirable.
Failing in business means you don’t have what it takes. Failing at art means you’re not creative. And so on.
But for the scientist, a negative result is not an indication that they are a bad scientist. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Proving a hypothesis wrong is often just as useful as proving it right because you learned something along the way.
Your failures are simply data points that can help lead you to the right answer.
None of this is to say that you should seek to make mistakes or that failing is fun.
But failure will always be part of your growth for one simple reason…
If you’re focused on building a new habit or learning a new skill or mastering a craft of any type, then you’re basically experimenting in one way or another. And if you run enough experiments, then sometimes you’re going to get a negative result.
This way of looking at failure as an experiment has helped A LOT these last few weeks. If I would not have this attitude I would have probably not have started our new and amazing adventure, I would be still stuck in the fear and would overlook all the possibilities and opportunities that are staring me in the eyes.
Nisandeh and I are experimenting something new.
You probably heard and read about our new crowdfunding campaign. We researched and learned about crowdfunding for the past 18 months and what we found was so HUGE, we realized we MUST share it with our community.
What we discovered about crowdfuding is going to revolutionize everything you ever thought you knew (or didn’t know) about marketing, crowdfunding and business.
But we need your support!
So, here is my invitation to you – join us in OUR new experiment!
I’ve come to realize that NOTHING in today’s New Marketing is as powerful as crowdfunding. Nisandeh and I are on a mission to create the ultimate Crowdfunding mastery course, and we need YOUR support to make it a success.
We want to teach you step-by-step how YOU can benefit from this powerful method and take YOUR business to the next level. We want to teach you WHILE doing it.
Join us on this exciting adventure and support us in any way that fits you.
Now I’m curious…
What would you do if you knew there is NO FAILURE?
Share with us in, the comment box below, what projects, products or services would you develop?
As a thank-you gift for your comment I will send you a special gift – a FREE ticket to our one-time event Mastering the New Marketing where you would learn more how you could co-create anything with your audience.
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Have a magical week! Vered
