Whether you're fearless or not you must obtain one thing. This can be acquired with network power, money, and/or time. That thing is EXPERIENCE.
You may need to purchase time from an expert with the experience to carry you across the finish line. This can come in the form of mentorship or outsourcing. Books and courses are valuable resources too.
Experience can also be bought with time. This can come from entry-level positions, apprenticeships, or trying and failing. Although, if you fail for too long it could become more expensive than consulting an expert in the long run.
If you've made a great impression on individuals then you can leverage your network. These individuals become referrals who connect you with experts who don't cost you anything but time. I trade experience with other professionals all the time. You teach me what you know and I teach you what I know.
That's the return on being valuable.
Now, let's talk about fear.
Fear is energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it must be transferred or transformed. You have the ability to transform the energy of fear into success.
Energy is natural. Emotions are natural. It is natural for you to feel fear. Do not try to avoid fear. Harness the power of fear. Use its energy to propel you through life.
First, acknowledge that you have this fear. Admit to yourself that you are fearful. Do not lie to yourself. Lying to yourself is called avoidance and will result in failure.
Fear simply represents a major event in your life. It is your internal alert system warning you of a major event. This presence of fear will heighten your senses. You are now beginning to tap into your power.
There are only two basic decisions that need to be made when fear arises. Go forward or retreat. Ultimately, that decision will rely on intuition, experience, logic, and data.
In business, fear is good. It means your corporation is facing a major decision that can change its trajectory. For the startup, that answer is often, go forward!
Now, let's address the 4 major fears.
Fear of Failure
This is the most transformative fear. When you fear failure, go forward. This is the defining barrier between the top 20% of people and the rest.
Most people retreat when failure waves at them from a distant mirage. It is a mirage because this idea of you failing isn't real. It is 100% imaginative. And no one created it but YOU!
The top 20% have the experience to know that when they fear failure they simply push forward.
When I think of all of the people I've mentored over the years, this was the only difference between the successful mentees and the unsuccessful. It's the difference between growth and no growth.
Don't think. Be.
Fear of Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a real fear. When you embark on a new business venture it's like walking through the woods at night. You don't fear the woods during the day because you can see. But the cloak of darkness teases your imagination and hinders your journey.
Uncertainty is that darkness. You don't know what to expect. There are hidden expenses or problems you overlooked before starting this business. This is a real fear.
You must rely on experience, research, and organization to minimize this fear.
Consult the experts, research the future of your business using other businesses as case studies, and organize those docs and sheets!
Fear of Rejection
I remember selling mortgages before the crash of 2008. We were cold-calling one evening and I was listening to the new kid make his calls. This one call sounded like money but the kid hung up the phone. I quickly raised from my shotty office chair and ran to his desk in the corner of the basement office. I exclaimed, "That was a sale! Call her back!"
He insisted that it wasn't a sale. He had been hung up on so many times that he was emotionally defeated.
I told him, to give me the lady's information and I'll close the deal. He laughed and handed me the info. We agreed that I would keep 100% of the commission if I closed the deal and he agreed.
15 minutes later and I had the lady signed up and scheduled for an appraisal. In the following months, the kid was much more inclined to take my advice.
The experience gave me the vision to recognize a sale. Fear of rejection lost that kid $2,000+.
Fear of rejection is also a figment of your imagination. Surely you will get rejected. But by who? Do you know? No! It's a numbers game. You keep shooting shots until one goes in. After you hit your first basket keep shooting.
Keep shooting until you get into a rhythm. Stay in that rhythm until you have momentum. Once you have momentum, nothing can stop you but you!
Fear of Not Being Good Enough
Guess what. You're not good enough! Ha, ha, ha!
Chew on that. How does that make your ego feel?
Are you done yet? Now, come back to reality.
Discipline beats talent every single time! Talent takes their success for granted. This leads to gaps in their game and chinks in their armor. Competitors in your market experiencing great success will be the same. They will do not the things you will do to win. They will neglect the sub-markets you can exploit.
It's not about being good or great. It's about getting better. Life pays in compound interest. Every task stacks up!
Are you better than you were yesterday?
Then don't worry about the future.
You are living the future. There is no such thing as the present, my chess coach says. You are living in the future. What is the present? A second ago? Ha, ha, ha!
If you stay consistent, you will wake up in a decade, look at your empire and realize, you still haven't defeated fear. You've merely learned how to transmute it. You'll realize that those feelings of inadequacy are still there.
Why? Cuz mo money more problems!
You never get your life together. You only patch up the pieces on your way to transitioning into your next life.
