The "F" Word: Secrets To Overcoming Fear
by Ty Freyvogel
Being an entrepreneur can be a scary thing. Ok…so it isn’t exactly like that TV show. Most likely there won’t be anyone making you lie in a container filled with snakes or forcing you to eat cow brains. But there are plenty of other factors that frighten people away from entrepreneurship everyday. The financial risk alone dissuades many promising business owners. You also risk your sense of security, your peace of mind, your regular vacations, your free time, possibly even the harmony of your marriage.
Entrepreneurs are always risk takers, but they are human, too. They often have to battle their fears to be successful. Unfortunately, if you start considering everything that could go wrong, you may let the fear take over and decide not to pursue your dream. In my opinion, that should scare you more than anything. If you forego your chance at owning your own business simply because you were afraid, you will constantly be wondering what might have been.
Thankfully, many entrepreneurs have come before you, and they have all faced the same fears you are facing now. Take a look at these tried and true ways I have used to overcome my fears:
Block
out the naysayers. When you start your own
business, people will be lining up to give you advice.
Some of that advice is good; some of it is discouraging.
Because every entrepreneur has his own fears when
heading into a project, it is important that you don’t
let others add to your anxiety with their negative
thoughts and advice. You can’t let others define
your success. You can’t let others tell you
what your goals should be. You can’t let others
tell you that you’re doing it wrong. You have
to stay true to your vision and your beliefs. If you
keep a firm grip on your own definitions of success,
you won’t let your failures overwhelm you and
convince you that you haven’t succeeded.
A great example of blocking out a naysayer came for me when I decided to start my first Nutri-System franchise in the late 70s. An economist friend of mine told me that, because interest rates were so high at the time, I would fail in the weight-loss business. At first I panicked and thought I might be making a huge mistake. Then I killed my fear by this rationalization: Sure, the economy is bad. And because it’s bad, people aren’t buying houses, cars or other big purchases. But they will spend money on smaller things that make them feel better about themselves, like cosmetics, and yes, weight-loss programs. It turns out my Nutri-System franchises were a huge success. By not letting fear take over, I was able to take advantage of a huge opportunity.
Put it on paper. It may seem juvenile,
but trust me it works! Take a second to think about
your fears and then write them all out. This process
makes them seem less important and easier to overcome. See? You’ll think. It’s only
words on paper! When you have your list of fears
all written down, take one last look at it and then
crumple it up and toss it into the nearest wastebasket.
You won’t need the list ever again. You will
have plenty to do now that you have taken the first
step in moving forward and leaving your fears behind.
It will be time for you to tackle the next set of
opportunities (and problems) that come your way, and
inevitably your next list of fears.
Focus on your opportunity to
succeed. Instead of being afraid that your
business will fail, think about the abundant possibilities
out there for success. Doesn’t that feel better?
When you begin to come to terms with the fact that
there are more than enough chances to succeed, you
begin to assure your own success. When you believe
that God-given abundance is your right, you’ll
discover ways to solve problems, overcome obstacles
and achieve your goals.
Give yourself some incentive. To overcome a fear, you have to have a reason to take
the first step in achieving whatever it is you are
afraid to do. Think of something that would make you
happy. It could be anything from dinner at your favorite
restaurant to buying yourself that cool, new gadget
you’ve been eyeing. After you have overcome
your latest fear, treat yourself to dinner at that
restaurant or go buy yourself the coveted gadget.
Giving yourself an incentive to overcome your fear
could be all you need to make yourself take the first
step in beating it.
Before you do anything, plan
it out. Creating a plan for any situation
makes it easier to deal with. Whether you are planning
out a new business or simply writing out a dialogue
of what to say on new business calls, having a plan
to fall back on will give you more confidence and
will make your fears subside.
Go ahead and take the plunge. Action can be a powerful fear killer. The best way
to overcome a fear is to prove to yourself that you can do that thing that keeps you lying awake
at night staring at the ceiling. If you look at any
business deal long enough, you can talk yourself out
of it. If you are afraid to start your own business,
take the first step in doing so and research the type
of business you would like to start. I guarantee you
that fear will begin to change into excitement. Find
something that you have a passion for, something that
you feel you can improve by making it better, faster,
or cheaper. As you start to overcome fear after fear,
you will discover that you are achieving goals and
building self-confidence at the same time.
Learn from your failures. Consider this new way of looking at failure: You are
a success precisely because of your failures,
mistakes, and problems, not in spite of them! It takes
a special kind of person to be an entrepreneur, to
fight to make a business successful even when the
odds are against you. You’re a success because
you tried to tackle problems head-on, tried to resolve
them and learned how to avoid them in the future.
The only way to fail in life is to avoid risk or to
run from your problems. In fact, there’s only
one way to assure that you never fail: Don’t
attempt to do anything. When you realize this truth,
your fears should lose much of their power.
Fear can often paralyze you into taking no action at all, leaving you and your business dead in the water. Whenever you feel fear creeping in, it is important that you put one of these tips in practice and squash the fear as soon as possible. The longer you let your fear rule what you are doing, the harder it will be to overcome.
And if at first you don’t succeed, don’t let your fears creep back in. Life is too short to obsess over failures, mistakes and missed opportunities. Chalk them up to the cost of obtaining experience! They’re just part of the formula that will lead to your success.
Seeing Red: Five “Failure Flags” To Spot Before It’s Too Late
by Ty Freyvogel
No one starts a business believing it is going to fail. Sure, you might have a few doubts in the back of your mind from time to time, but generally we entrepreneurs are an optimistic group. We think our ideas are great, and we jump into our ventures with a failure-is-not-an-option attitude. But many beginners can fall into practices that start their companies off on the wrong track, and the marketplace can be pretty unforgiving territory. If you don’t get back on the right track—and quickly—you might find yourself at a point of no return.
There are certain red flags that pop up to warn you when you’re headed toward disaster. I call them “Failure Flags.” When you see them, you need to take corrective action right away. However, if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to sail right past them. Here are five Failure Flags to watch out for:
You realize you’re clueless
about some aspect of your industry. You’d
be surprised how many people fail to do their homework
before they launch a new business. Maybe they’re
so greedy or dazzled by someone else’s success
that they just close their eyes and take a leap. (You’re
only allowed to call it a leap of faith if you do
enough research to be reasonably sure there’s
a featherbed at the bottom of the cliff instead of
a nest of alligators.) Or they experience success
with one product, or one store, or one industry, and
they assume the formula they followed before will
automatically translate to another product, store,
or industry.
What you don’t know will
kill your business. The solution here is
obvious: do your due diligence. You can never be too
informed about the field you’re betting your
future on. Become a voracious reader: subscribe to
every industry trade magazine you can get your hands
on. Join associations. Talk to others in the industry.
And as I mentioned earlier, a sense of passion for
the field you’re jumping into will make it far
more likely that you immerse yourself in knowledge
about it. After all, who wants to read up on nuances
of something they don’t enjoy?
Day-to-day details start falling
through the cracks. As your business gets
off the ground, you may be tempted to take your attention
away from nuts & bolts tasks such as bookkeeping
and dealing with customer complaints. These details
may seem boring compared to developing new marketing
strategies or planning for a new business, but if
you want your business to be successful, you will
have to attend to every task that comes up, no matter
how mundane. If you find that you are neglecting necessary
day-to-day tasks, hire someone to take them over for
you. If you absolutely can’t afford to put someone
on your payroll, you have to prioritize. Plan your
day so that you have enough time to handle both dull-as-dishwater
details and do the fun stuff. Ensuring that no part
of the business is neglected is the only way you’ll
survive.
Your marketing plan isn’t
working. To win customers, you must get the
word out that your business is open and that it has
a valuable product or service. Many small business
owners develop their own marketing plan, only to find
that it is unsuccessful. There is no worse feeling
than spending time and money on a campaign that doesn’t
bring in enough customers to create long-term success.
Do the proper research before you start. Know what
message your potential customers will respond to,
know what messages your competition is putting out
there, and be sure you aren’t making promises
you can’t keep. Finally, if you aren’t
seeing results, hire a good ad agency or PR firm to
help. Many entrepreneurs feel this is an “expense”
they can’t afford, but it’s actually an
investment that can make the difference between failure
and success. There are plenty of small, less-expensive
marketing companies out there. Just ask for references—and
talk to them—before you sign a contract.
You’re making short-term
decisions out of desperation. The pressures
that arise when running a new business can cause you
to make decisions without considering the greater
consequences. For example, you may need money to meet
payroll or make a change in the business that you
think is necessary and not have the money on hand.
What will you do? Stick to your plan? Or will you
make a decision that helps you get by in the short-term,
like taking on a customer who isn’t right for
you or accepting money from an investor you may not
trust? To be successful, you must develop
a gut instinct about when it is and isn’t okay
to deal in the short-term. Every time you make a decision
think, “What are the long term effects of what
I’m about to do?” If you know in your
heart that disaster lurks down the road, rethink your
decision. There’s usually a better solution—one
that won’t replace a small problem you face
today with a larger, more devastating one tomorrow.
You
find yourself jetting around town in a shiny new sports
car. Too many entrepreneurs find themselves
stuck in what I call “The Corvette Phase.”
Here’s what happens. You start your business
and it really takes off. You make your first million
or maybe just your first $500,000 and you suddenly
become convinced that you have arrived. You start
believing your own press. You tell yourself, I’ve
worked really hard and now it’s time to enjoy
the fruits of my labors. So you go out and buy
a Corvette, maybe you buy a mansion in a ritzy neighborhood,
maybe you take a few lavish vacations and start spending
business hours on the golf course. Basically, you
get distracted by the toys and trappings of wealth
and you quit paying attention to the business. Remember,
entrepreneurship is a fulltime job. Forget that and
I can promise you, someone will be coming
to repo the Corvette.
My advice for avoiding the mistake is
two-fold. First, never lose sight of your business.
A new company is as demanding as a toddler who has
just learned to walk. You can’t take your eyes
off it for a second or disaster can strike in the
most unexpected of ways. Face it: you don’t
have time for a bunch of lavish vacations and weekends
spent leisurely cruising around in sports cars or
golf carts! Secondly, learn to live simply. Yes, it’s
okay to have a nice vehicle, but I don’t advise
having a five-car garage full of them. Don’t
flash wealth around or live beyond your means. It
turns people off, it distracts you from your goals,
and it’s just plain poor financial management.
Invest that money back into your business or save
it for a rainy day.
By
keeping your eyes open for Failure Flags and taking
swift action immediately, you can usually “course
correct” before it’s too late. You will make some mistakes here and there. You’re only
human, after all. But it’s important that you
rebound as quickly as possible and knowing what to
look for may make the difference between smashing
into that company-killing iceberg and sailing safely
around it to the blue seas beyond.
Entrepreneurial Positive Thinking: Six Ways to Give Yourself the Greatest Chance for Success
by Ty Freyvogel
The business world is a scary place, no doubt about it. As an entrepreneur you are going to encounter all kinds of obstacles as you carve out your career—it’s just the nature of the craft. No one is going to part the sea for you or make your way smooth and easy, so, inevitably, problems will arise. You can count on it. That’s why now is the time to acquire the unlikely skill that will actually create a profound impact on your success in business . . . Positive Thinking.
Before you gag from all the sappy connotations these two words imply, keep reading. Positive thinking goes beyond clichés and fluffed up ideals about “looking on the bright side” or “making lemonade when life hands you lemons.” The truth is that the way you think about yourself, your ideas, and your abilities as an entrepreneur have a direct effect not only on your personal well-being, but upon your financial success and stability as well. Read on to learn how to change your thinking and drastically improve your career along the way.
1. Our perceptions, our selves.
We mold our lives by the way we interpret the events that happen to us. Your reaction to these good and bad events are already engrained into your psyche, and chances are, if you are dealing with the things you view as negative in a self-destructive manner, you already know it. Consider how you react when something moderately bad happens in your world. If you’re like most people, you become upset, angry even, and a multitude of physiological changes take place in your body: sweating, increased blood pressure, and overall muscular tension, to name just a few.
Interestingly, these physical symptoms indicate that in the event of something unwanted or unplanned, you literally begin to shut your own body down. Doesn’t this speak volumes about the self-destructive nature of negative thought patterns? If your own body listens to your negative thoughts and impressions so loyally, imagine what the rest of the world hears! Hopefully this illustration explains how important your reactions become in the scheme of your success. If you don’t believe you are a competent and worthy businessperson—and believe it with your whole mind, heart and body—no one else will either.
2. The Optimistic Approach.
Positive thought is also known as optimism. It is all in the way you interpret your life and its events. If you view the world as a dangerous and terrifying place, you’re likely stay locked up safe in your home when you could be out experiencing life’s challenges and joys. Fear will shut you in. But if you chose to perceive the planet as an interactive classroom, you will recognize all of the untapped opportunity and energy floating around waiting to be claimed by someone brave enough to search for it.
Optimism doesn’t necessarily mean that you must keep smiling when something sets you back grossly in your career. It’s okay to feel and experience disappointment. But immediately afterward you have to stand back up and say to the world, “Plan A didn’t work, now I am going to find Plan B!” Negative thought only takes you backward, but by maintaining an optimistic focus you will repeatedly lead yourself to a new opportunity, a new connection, a new level of success.
3. Negativity is fear in sheep’s clothing.
All negativity is fear and self-doubt in disguise. When you think you can’t do something, you are just responding to an acquired belief that you are unworthy to achieve your goals. It is not coming from fact, but rather fear. You fear that you are not intelligent enough, not lucky enough, not rich enough to succeed. But let me tell you now, if others have made it before you, then you too possess all the attributes you need to find your place in the world.
Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones, because positive thoughts come from courage, and you will have taken an important step toward believing in your potential. A word of caution: Often beginning entrepreneurs can confuse negative thoughts with cautious thoughts. There is a difference between thinking something is impossible and thinking something is a bad idea for your business. Don’t allow positive thinking to skew your vision of reality. A good entrepreneur knows the difference between thinking positively and thinking irrationally.
4. Go with the flow.
For all you micromanagers out there, what I am about to say may be difficult to swallow: The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who optimistically go with the flow. If you loosen up just a little, you will find how easy it is to float while others are sinking. Business types often try to control every single degree of their world, whether professional or personal. This is a dangerous tendency, because no one can control the universe and there are limitless factors that could at any moment fall upon your little controlled microcosm.
The most successful people in business and in life are those who allow their plans to be fluid. Don’t stress over the two thousand definite steps between point A and point B. Instead establish your intentions—“to successfully own and operate my own business so it may provide for my livelihood”— and just do something! If that something doesn’t work, take another step with a different approach. As long as you don’t trap yourself in a rigid formula you think you need, the right opportunities and success will eventually find you.
5. Ward off Worry.
Worry is what happens when you continually fret over events and situations over which you have no control. It is toxic in every situation. When people worry, they fill their minds with “what ifs” and worst possible scenarios. (Sound familiar?) When you worry, you give all your fears and neuroses liberty to trample down your courage and your self-esteem. What’s worse is that you’re exclaiming to the universe that you don’t believe you and your plans are worth a fair chance. So eliminate worry from your life immediately.
Don’t get me wrong. It is okay (indeed, advisable) to doubt and be uncertain from time to time. Just doubt with logic, not fear. Instead of sitting at your desk worrying about a problem, take action. For example, like many entrepreneurs, I used to worry about not having enough money to cover a problem in one of my businesses. Rather than sit at my desk and hope no problems came up in my day-to-day transactions, I made a promise to myself that I would always have a certain amount of cash in my account. This way if a problem did arise I knew I would have the money to take care of it, and I wouldn’t surprise my banker by not being able to make my start-up loan payment for that month.
6. Eliminate the “C” word.
Can’t is a word you must avoid if you ever plan to create anything, be it a salad, a rocket ship or a successful business. Positive thinking begins and ends with a vocabulary of affirmation. Check the degrading lingo at the door and you are going to do better in your career. It really is that simple. Words have great power to create—and also to destroy.
I read an article about a Japanese scientist, Dr. Masaru Emoto, who has experimented with directing positive and negative intentions to water molecules. Apparently, he “talks” to very cold water samples using spoken and written words and music and, unbelievably, the water actually responds. When kind and loving words or phrases are communicated, the water crystals form intricate and breathtaking structures, only to change expression to dull, incomplete, asymmetrical patterns when spoken to harshly or negatively. Now, consider that human beings are primarily made of water. Don’t you think you should affirm your career and existence with positive language and actions? Don’t tell me you can’t.
I’ve found that all of these tips can be boiled down into one single rule for positive thinking that you should always keep in mind. Here it is: When opening a business or starting a new project, always think of the worst possible outcome as the least likely scenario.
If you have tried everything you can think of and your business is just not where it needs to be, give “positivity” a sincere chance. If you have been unsuccessful thus far in your career then you have nothing to lose, and if you are already successful, you have the opportunity to become not only more successful, but also happier and more at peace inside and out.
Above all, you should become an optimist because it is your birthright. We were not placed on earth to hide and be fearful, but rather to live courageously and learn to experience joy. It is your purpose to make your way in the world and when you approach life and your career with optimism and excitement, you will be blessed in your efforts indeed.
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