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Overcome Your Fear of
Failure (or Success)
by Sharon Davis
Mar. 23, 2002
My brother-in-law is in the
process of starting a home business. In fact, he's been in the
process of starting it for over 2 years now.
It seems that Bill (that's
not really his name, but I don't want to embarrass him), is afraid
to take the big step.
He wasn't afraid to take the
first step. He's taken lots of steps. He's going to be selling
a product, so he's done some really important (and expensive)
groundwork like designing his product, testing it, getting a
patent, getting a business license, setting up his accounting
procedures and even designing his website.
Bill spent alot of time on
his website (he's a bit of a perfectionist). I've offered to
get him up and running on the web, submit it to the search engines,
and basically handle the website administration for him.
About 2 months ago, his site
was all set and I've been waiting for his go ahead to "go
live" ever since. Whenever I ask him if he's ready, he has
a vague reason for not going ahead: "I need to make more
of model x" or "I've decided to redesign a few things
on the website".
It has become clear to me that
Bill is afraid of failure (or even his own success).
This is an all to common situation
among would-be business owners. Let's face it -- it's a pretty
scary thing to be completely responsible for your own livelihood.
In fact, this fear is often the one thing that keeps a person
from realizing their dream of having a home business.
There are some good reasons
to be nervous, too. The Small Business Administration estimates
that 33% of small businesses fail within the first year, 50%
fail within the second year and 60% to 70% will fail within their
first five years of operation.
People have all kinds of reasons
that keep them from starting a business:
- They're afraid they'll lose
money
- They're afraid of what their
family and friends will think of them if they fail.
- They're fearful of the enormous
responsibility that comes with owning a business.
- They think it's too hard,
or that they don't have enough time.
But should we really let fear
come between us and our dreams? In this past year, we've learned
that we have
tremendous strength within each of us-- whether we knew it or
not. And lots of people *are* successful. Why shouldn't Bill
be one of the ones who succeeds? I believe that he has it in
him to be successful, but he just has to get past the fear factor
and take that next step.
And if you're planning to start
a home business then do your homework, find something that you
feel passionate about, plan your business, but don't let fear
keep you from achieving your goals.
Copyright © 2001, Sharon
Davis.
Sharon Davis is the owner
of 2Work-At-Home.Com
and the Editor of the site's monthly e-zine, America's
Home. In her spare time, she reminisces about what it was
like to have spare time. To subscribe to her free e-zine, Click
Here
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