Elle provokes some
practical thought and with only three points to play with cannot offer the
scope of a book on the subject. As a therapist I feel it of paramount
importance to point out the implied emotional confidence of Acceptance,
Adjustment and Adaptation. Without this confidence these attributes would be
difficult if not impossible for some to appreciate and implement.
3 Steps To
Overcoming Your Fear Of Failure
ELLE KAPLAN,
Sometimes, you have to just go for it.
I find softball in Central Park daunting. I strike out
all the time but I am inspired by the book "Moneyball" and look
forward to my time up at bat. Success at a start-up can have similar
strike-outs.
Prior to launching my company, Lexion Capital, I knew the grim
stats. After five years, 39.6 percent
of finance, insurance and real estate
companies will be out of business.
And it isn’t just my industry — 41.1 percent of retailing
companies will close, 47.6 percent of services companies will fold, and 48.4
percent of manufacturing companies will shut their doors.
What is the best way to overcome a fear of failure?
Cultivate the confidence to be able to
embrace failing and to learn how to pivot when things
don’t go your way.
Step 1: Acceptance
Remember when you first learned to ride a bike? No one
expected that you would get it right away.
In fact, they expected that you
wouldn't. That's why there are training wheels (and nowadays, helmets, knee
pads, elbow-pads, etc). Similarly, there are business plans, beta launches, and feedback
before you launch for real.
Accept that you don’t have all the right answers right
off the bat. But with time, the training wheels could come off. When you
learned how to ride a bike, you learned how to brake and that leaning left
or
right helped around corners. How? You’d fallen a few times, gotten back on, and
figured it out.
I don't bike through the pretty trails of Illinois
anymore; I'm now on the mean streets of NYC.
Like anyone, I do sometimes fear falling — but the key to
success is knowing that if I fall
I can simply get back up.
In other words, what goes down does indeed come back up.
You will be able work out the kinks
in your business. And just like riding that bike, you
always need to watch out for cars and other unforeseen business obstacles. The
hurdles ahead will constantly change, and you need to remain agile and focused.
Step 2: Adjustment
Sometimes even the best laid plans need some tweaking
post-launch.
I know a group of entrepreneurs who dreamed of creating
the perfect neighborhood spot to meet for drinks. New to the bar business, they focused
their enthusiasm and attention on the creative end
of their endeavor, the menu
planning, styling, and aesthetic details that would comprise their scene.
It
was amazing — on the surface.
Behind the scenes, their plans were not as airtight. They
laughed off some of the tried and true tricks of the trade, like measuring
bottles of alcohol by weight to prevent employee theft, because at the time it
seemed preposterous that such a thing could bear any significant consequence on
their bottom line. They were wrong. Nothing was monitored and their upscale
martini lounge was very popular but not profitable. Faced with failure, the team was forced to take a good
hard look at basic business facts.
They made adjustments to optimize and reduce expenditures
and adopted the standard practice
of measuring bottles by weight. Things slowly started to
turn around.
Though everything they had focused on had succeeded, the
essential foundation of their business failed. But the group managed to channel
that failure productively, learning from their stumble
rather than letting it
trip them up completely.
Step 3: Adaptation
Failure needn’t lead to extinction.
Animals use adaptation to survive in their ecological
niche or habitat and so can you.
I have a dear friend who opened a restaurant, totally
beating the organic, free-range foodie trends here in
NYC. He was a trendsetter, but in some ways his concept was too early and too
costly.
On the brink of going under, he examined his books and
realized that his most successful aspect
was catering, a very minor focus. So he switched focus.
I'm happy to report that as a specialty catering
business, his company thrived. Though his initial concept, in restaurant form,
was not right for the mass market at the time, he unwittingly tapped into the
perfect niche market: early, enthusiastic tribes of organic foodies, who proved
evangelistic about his farm-to-table fare. Not only is he still in business
today in a notoriously fickle industry,
he has even expanded as a supplier to restaurants that
serve organic specialties.
Did his restaurant fail? Yes. But when he reviewed that
failure through a strategic, creative lens,
he saw the seeds of a different successful business. One
that has grown several streams of revenue, and allows him to do what he loves
and believes in.
He fell, but got right back up.
http://www.businessinsider.com/overcoming-your-fear-of-failure-2014-2
Perhaps you’d like to checkout my sister blog www.innermindreading.blogspot.com
and find easy, fast and efficient ways of working with
the issues or little unpleasantness’s in your life.
I am now featuring aspects of my upcoming internet
programme teaching Inner Mind
Reading.
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