Why Business Scares Me Shitless And How I Deal With It
I’ve found one key thing, that is stopping most potential entrepreneurs from really gaining momentum, and if you continue reading this article, I’ll tell you exactly what it is.
Once you start this journey, and you’ve truly committed, it’s almost inevitable that you will succeed, but only once you’ve made the full commitment. This type of commitment, that I’ve seen every entrepreneur make, that has really succeeded. The commitment drives itself, like a self-driving force that helps you succeed in business.
Before I started business, I had these fears, that I was just a student in college, and that I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was worried no one would take me seriously, because I didn’t have any experience, and I hadn’t done a project before. I hadn’t been outside of a standard job before, and I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was worried I didn’t have the right skill repertoire, etc.
All these fears I had these before starting a business, I even had them after I had started a business, when I did start to get clients. I was worried I wasn’t offering a service as good as companies, who have better resources, can do a better job. I don’t have as many people working for me, and I don’t have the skills that they have, and I was worried I might be offering it to cheaply, or to expensive ( I had all kinds of worries).
Even after I overcame all those fears, I still had the fear that if I fail, if I go bankrupt, If I can’t pay someone, if a project fails, I’ll have to go back, and get a shitty job somewhere. A low qualified job, because I’m not qualified enough to get a better paying one. Even today, after seven years in business, I catch myself talking to someone at a party, to a random person, and I’m thinking to myself about why I’m not working right now, I’m not hustling as hard as someone else, working as hard, delivering the result I promised.
I’ll think that I should be back at home working. I still think I’ll have to go back to my parents, and live in a shitty room, in a shitty Belgian city, where my parents live. I still catch myself today, sometimes thinking about it.
Even today, I sometimes catch myself thinking about it, about how to complete the project, because I don’t actually know what I’m doing. What if the business owner, who pays me, sues me for failing, what would I do then, or what would happen if I succeed. It’s the fear of the unknown.
Everyone who is a success today, they all felt this fear, it’s normal to go through this fear. If it wasn’t scary, it wouldn’t really be worth doing it. All your friends, and relatives would own a business if it wasn’t scary.
If you are reading this article, and you just want theory, and you don’t want to implement, don’t read the rest of it, because right now, I’m going to give you an exercise, and this exercise is only for action takers. I don’t want you to read the action exercise, unless you’re going to implement.
It’s very important that you can commit to this, because if you can, then read the rest of what I’m about to explain.
The scariest part is the first step. An example would be I had this client, last week, and he has anxiety of talking to people, of talking to strangers, and all kinds of anxiety. He even goes to the psychologist. I got him to do regular cold calls to strangers, by giving him a very first simple step to complete. He chose a specific day, at noon, where he would make one single call, to one single company. Go to the Yellow pages, and find one company, in any niche, and give them a call, and try to sell them something. You don’t have to succeed, just doing it is enough. Record it, and post it somewhere for other people to review. This is the first step, it’s a very small step, and you will find after you’ve done it once, the fear will subside. Not all of it, but seventy five percent of the initial fear will go away.
If a guy with massive anxiety can do it, I believe that you can do it as well. The second step, to overcoming the fear is investment: This isn’t necessarily money; it’s also your time and energy. If you invest enough of your energy in something, you can get used to it, and even get addicted to it. People will get addicted to video games, drugs, porn, TV shows, etc. But that’s not usually a choice, for them to get addicted to it (It’s normally an unconscious choice to drift into this addiction).
If you could choose something to get addicted to, it would be much nicer: To go into business, and start closing sales, something that actually benefits the world, and you. Think about some of the things you’d like to get addicted to. Let me know down below, because I’m very interested. If you have any questions, comment down below.
