"When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel", Eloise Ristad.
When you have had a career, it is understandable that you may have a fear of failure when considering pivoting to the world of entrepreneurship. This fear may be around a lack of confidence in your abilities as an entrepreneur, fear of being rejected, or fear of financial failure and losing everything that you have built.
These fears are so common, particularly when starting a business for the first time as you have grown used to the stability and predictability that employment brings.
However, don't let these fears paralyse you as there are some simple strategies that you can implement to mitigate them.
1. Stop thinking of failure as an “all-or-nothing” scenario with catastrophic consequences. Reframe your mindset and remember success is never a straight line. Along the way there will be challenges and setbacks and it’s likely to be messy. This is entirely normal and you will learn and grow from these bumps in the road and simply viewing them as such will reduce this fear.
2. A legitimate concern might be your ability to replicate your current lifestyle - What if your business doesn’t make it? What if I can only make half of what I was making before?
This can be easily mitigated. Before you take that leap, do some research, or start working on your idea as a side hustle. Keep up with your skills and maintain your existing networks. By doing these things you will have created a safety net should things not work out as planned.
3. Consider your worst case scenario. Rather than having ambiguous thoughts about things that could go wrong, write down in granular detail exactly what the worst case scenario might look like. Then consider step by step what you could do if indeed your business fails. Working through this will enable to start your business with your eyes open and prepared for every eventuality.
Starting a new business will inevitably have its ups and downs but don’t let that stop you from grabbing the opportunity!
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