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How to conquer the fear of failing when starting your own company
As the old adage goes, if you risk nothing, you gain nothing. It’s hard to get anywhere in life without taking a chance. Those who play everything conservatively are probably going to have a fairly low ceiling in their lives. It was incredibly risky for Mark Zuckerberg to drop out of Harvard and concentrate his efforts on expanding Facebook. Today he’s a multi-billionaire. Results will certainly vary, but even on a smaller scale we all have to do something slightly dangerous if we want to reach our true potential.
We like to romanticize the idea of starting our own company, but in reality it’s an incredibly risky endeavor. Quitting your job and starting a company is a difficult road. However, the rewards often make the hard work and challenges worth it. The key is having the right attitude throughout the process. You have to be fearless. More importantly, you cannot be afraid to fail.
An Entrepreneur article recently listed the five fears people have to get over about starting their own company. The fear of failure was right near the top of that list. Jayson Demers, the article’s author, listed a number of things that can go wrong when starting a company. He stressed that while they do ultimately impact decision making, they should not prevent anyone from deciding to do something that might be considered risky.
“The fear of failure gets the better of all of us occasionally. There are small failures — such as a botched email-marketing campaign or a major bug you discover post launch, and massive failures — such as your company going under,” Demers writes. “Failure will set you back no matter what, but you can’t let the fear of failure stop you from making a decision. Failure is only the end of the road if you let it be. Otherwise, it’s just a temporary stopping point in a long path to a final destination.”
There are ways to alleviate risk and curb the fear of failure. Setting yourself up with the proper resources can help ease the transition from working a traditional job to starting your own company. Partnering with organizations that can help — such as someone who can show you how to incorporate your new business — will go a long way towards ensuring the success of your endeavor.