"Our greatest glory is in never falling, but in rising every time we fall" is a famous quote from Confucius but the real question lies whether we shift our gears to rise and move forward or we take a moment and stay in that moment until someone or something lifts us up?
The modern world is understandably complex. Due to the advent of the internet and now more interestingly - social media, getting yourself heard has now become a far cry than two decades ago. Being entrepreneurs, chances of experiencing fear and failure become so high because we have to test the market multiple times than it was before. To get armored, learning about a few tips can get you going and make your ride much easier.
1. Face your fears. We never lose sight of failure whenever we face untested waters. Instead, use the experience to equip you to think harder and better. If you feel the need to learn to fill some gaps (i.e. skill), then set some time to learn something new or read some articles that contain topics that you think will help your business. Also, when you learn to face your fears, you create calculated risks to combat different market forces that affect your business. In this way, you will be able to keep up with the competition and better yet stand out. When you learn to face your fears, you will eventually learn how to control them.
2. Focus on what's important. In the previous articles, I have mentioned focus and why it's important. Here, the focus is also critical when dealing with fear. Given the vision you have, trim down the activities that you cannot control, instead, work on your way to efforts that can be controlled and can be translated into results. In that way, you will realize fear can be your buddy too!
3. Discover what could be the source of your fear. Being scared at some point in our lives is normal, but experiencing it every day isn’t. In the past, I was so scared to speak in front of a huge audience. Then I realize, since I need to represent my company and myself, why don’t I try to learn the cause of my fear of speaking to a crowd. Then I realize I lack practice. I am sure that everyone-entrepreneurs or not, have experienced being anxious about something. When you stop thinking about your fear, you will discover that the cause would mean insecurity, discomfort, or could be something else. The important thing here is that you learn to identify what causes your fear. Being honest with ourselves helps us determine how to overcome our fears and turn them into an asset to run our activities more efficiently.
Let’s look at one successful entrepreneur - Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group. He has experienced challenges in his career when he was CEO because of his drive to innovate and to evolve his company into a megabrand in media, leisure, travel, telecom, and health. Because of his perseverance, passion and dedication even when times were tough, he managed to get focused and realized that fear is temporary. As fellow entrepreneurs, it’s critical how we manage our bearings when we are faced with fears and setbacks. As Confucius says, it is not how we fall that matters but how we bravely confront difficulties and use it for a better version of ourselves.
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