Updated April 24, 2023
Fear Level and Ahead in Business
So you want to be an entrepreneur and start your own enterprise. Or maybe you’re already running an enterprise and want to diversify, start a new venture, or simply expand your operations. In all these cases, one obstacle stands in your way – fear level.
You see, fear level is a very powerful emotion. It is capable of making or breaking a man. Back in the day, when humans were hunter-gatherers, it was important to have a fear level – the fear that leads to danger is what kept them alive. Yes, fear keeps you alive in a flight or fight situation, but in starting a business and running it -which, by the way, is a mostly cognitive task- it will be a hindrance. Mostly!
Confused? Let me put it up in simpler words. In business, we have to deal with the fear of failure. It is okay to be afraid for a bit. It makes you think twice, it makes you double-check everything, and it helps you see what’s at stake. However, for most of us, the fear level doesn’t stop there. It takes the liberty of producing demotivating thoughts; soon enough, you’ll start to doubt your ideas and abilities.
Now, if you want to succeed in business, do not let fear takes the best of you. If you are determined to beat your fears to submission and overcome any obstacle in your quest for success, read on, brave soul, you will find it worth the time.
Conquering fear level has two dimensions; put in the simplest terms, they are –
- What you can do INSIDE your head, and
- What you can do OUTSIDE your head.
To a person observing you, it would appear that the things you do outside your head are what aid your success. However, if you want those to be in order, you have to sort out the things you do inside your head.
What are these anyway? The stuff on the inside are emotions, motivation, the overall state of mind, and attitude. The stuff on the outside is all the external preparation you’ll have to do.
What can you do INSIDE?
Stay positive. The mind believes what you tell it. Absolutely! If you keep beating yourself up, saying, “It’s impossible,” “I can’t do it,” or “there’s too much risk involved”, then you are paving your path to failure. Stay positive and have faith in your abilities. The person who says he can and the person who says he can’t are both often right. If you lose a game mentally, you’ve already lost the game. This analogy applies to all aspects of life. The world has a fair share of haters and critics. When you come up with a new idea or business venture, people will have something to say about it. If most of what you hear is positive, consider yourself lucky, for most people hear criticism, not appreciation. The average person loves to criticize and find faults in others’ ideas.
In situations like these, remember what Will Smith’s character in the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happiness tells his son –
“Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can’t do it. if you want something, go get it. Period.”
Don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t mean you should be completely closed to suggestions and advice. Just make sure you always take advice from the experts. If you’re starting a new business venture, talk to someone who has built a similar enterprise from the ground up. Talk to people who are your target audience. These people are qualified and/or capable of advising you. Ignore all criticisms that aren’t worthwhile or useful.
Accept the fact that no matter what you do, there is always a possibility that you might end up failing. Nobody ever nailed anything on their first attempt. It’s like pancakes- the first one is always a throw-away. But don’t let that disappoint you. If you aim high enough, even if you fail to reach your goals, you’ll still have reached somewhere – having half a loaf of bread is better than having none. And yeah, keep trying. Failure is painful. I get it. Understand pain is temporary. It might last a couple of days, weeks, or maybe months. But if you quit, it will be there for the rest of your life. If you fail, scrape your bum off the floor and return to work as a wiser man.
Motivation plays a crucial role in the journey to success. A person with no motivation is as useless as a refrigerator in Antarctica. Most of you say you seek success. The real question is, how badly do you want it? Do you want it as much as you want to party? Will you desire it as intensely as you desire to sleep? Do you want it as much as a drowning man wants air? To attain knowledge and success, first, you must crave it.
Okay, so let’s say you’ve managed to start your own enterprise. It is now that the real challenge arises- the challenge of staying motivated in the long run. Remind yourself why you decided to be an entrepreneur in the first place. Set daily goals and work towards achieving them. These short-term goals help you see progress easily, and nothing is more motivating than seeing the result of your hard work.
You must care for your overall state of mind to ensure you’re performing at your best. A healthy mind is of utmost importance in achieving success. Once in a while, take a short break. Read a book. Hit the gym. Maybe play a musical instrument. These work wonders for your brain. The time off allows your brain to clear up its workbench and refresh and rejuvenate itself. Trust me. Your brain will be up and running in no time, functioning with an unheard-of efficiency.
Your attitude matters a lot. An aura of positivity can work wonders with your co-workers and prospective clients. Keep an open mind and be receptive to novelty – hear out new ideas, proposals, and recommendations, no matter how outrageous they appear. Keep the ego under wraps. There will be times when you need to collaborate with other people. There will be times when you need someone’s help. The first step here is accepting that you need help from other people. You need to be humble and convincing if you want people to be willing to help you.
What can you do on the OUTSIDE?
Okay, so you’re mentally at your best. Now you need to think about how to prepare externally to maximize your chances of success. This segment deals with that kind of preparation.
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Plan ahead of time
Imagine you’re on vacation. Say you’re going on a road trip. You plan ahead for where and when you’re going, where you’ll stay, and so on. You map out everything before you step out.
In short, you must not start without a plan. Make a plan and write it down. You’re more likely to succeed with a written-down plan. Know where you’re headed before you start the engine. This plan should be flexible, but not to the extent that the core is disrupted.
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Nothing better than teamwork
Unless you’re a prodigy with 200+ I.Q, AND superhuman abilities, you won’t be able to do all the work by yourself. Everyone has their own talents, strengths, and weaknesses. This is why teamwork is of the essence. Say, you’re excellent at coming up with new ideas but not so good at marketing them. If you have a marketing expert by your side, he fills the void created by your inability to market your idea. It’s near impossible to run a one-man show
Even the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful man have a group of advisors. They fully understand and accept that they can’t do everything by themselves. Hence they bring together talented people to aid their rise to success.
As I said earlier, you might have to collaborate with other people, and sometimes you need help. Thus, there is no harm in taking help from someone. Trying to run a one-man act and being unwilling to seek help is a surefire sign of arrogance.
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Don’t rely entirely on luck to get you through
Someone succeeds in doing a task while you fail miserably trying to do the same, and you mutter to yourself: “lucky bastard”.
Well, luck had nothing to do with it. Not as much as you thought, anyway. Think of luck as a bonus point – they always go to the ones who put in their share of hard work. When your schoolteachers told you that fortune favors the brave, they weren’t lying. Maybe he was lucky enough to come across an influential person or a potential investor, but that’s only because he put in the effort to meet new people. Keep trying to promote your business even when nobody appears to notice. You never know when your big break will come or where it will come from.
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Find the right people
For any business to succeed, having the right bunch of people is important. A wrong hire can also drain a large sum of money and time. The best hire, on the other hand, will bring you tenfold results in half the time. Likewise, never settle for a ‘good enough’ hire. Moreover, the fine line between a good and perfect hire will mark the difference between the best and second-best enterprises.
When hiring an employee, ensure they fit into your work culture. A sparkling resume doesn’t always mean a person is a good hire. A good hire is someone who fits into your work culture and is motivated and committed to working with you. They should be compatible with your existing employees. Finally, see what they can bring to your company and what the person expects to achieve working for you.
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Data is God
Studies have revealed that data-driven companies outperform their non -data-driven counterparts regarding financial performance, shareholder wealth, and branding. Thanks to the growth of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, cloud, business analytics, and consumer, not the product becoming the focal point, Big Data is here to help entrepreneurs, big and small to succeed in the competitive and recessionary milieu. The success of Google, Facebook, Walmart, and several new-generation companies point to the importance of Big Data. Data mining, predictive analysis, and business analytics tools also allow the discerning entrepreneur to turn into useful, structured data for getting ahead in business.
Fear Level & Get Ahead in Business Conclusion
Fear leads to quite an irrationality, whether in personal life or business. However, to succeed in business, you must make the right moves, remain highly motivated, look for mentors in the field, and take pains to understand the market and consumer mindset. Fear often leads to insufficient groundwork or spadework on what is happening in the market. In many technology parks, universities, and colleges, incubators have been set up to foster entrepreneurship at the academic stage. These institutions guide, hand-hold, and even provide seed funding for good ideas before the budding entrepreneurs can take off independently. This way, they don’t feel like babies suddenly thrown into the waters, and having fear leads to being drowned. You need not be born into a business family to succeed in business. If you have the strategies, support, leadership qualities, and a spirit of innovation, there is nothing coming in the way of success.
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