Small Business Challenge – Pushing Through “Failure Aversion”

Being an entrepreneur / business owner can be lonely. Yes, you may have the money that comes with success, but many of us (if not all) are always afraid of failure.

“What if no one buys what I’m selling?”

“What if I get a bad Yelp review?”

“What if….?”

Your mind can quickly take you down a path of fear of failure – I know it does for me. But then, I will get posts like the one from Seth Godin that arrived in my Inbox today (the guy is brilliant – if you don’t follow him, you should – click here.)

But here is his post – I was going to paraphrase, but he puts it all together so perfectly I couldn’t do it justice with an edit.

… Focus on the Impact

So turn those questions above into:

“How will my product improve a pain point for my customer?”

“How can I better serve a customer that gave me a bad review? Is there something I can learn?”

In those darkest hours, when you’re feeling doubt and fear creep into your thinking, go ahead and own it – Yes, there will be people out there that don’t like what you’re selling (and today, more than even before, they have a way to voice their opinions). Yes, there will be people that will try to cut you down (some do it just for fun). Yes, your next idea may be a legitimate failure – but, when you’re an entrepreneur it doesn’t matter – you can’t be stopped by failure. Focus on the impact – and the “butterfly effect”. If you can positively impact one person with your business, that person will take that positive energy to create something better than they would have before they came in contact with your business.

Even if you’re “just selling widgets” – the way you treat your customers, your employees and yourself is the way you impact the world around you.

P.S. Remember, if you’re ready to finally put yourself in the position of power over your marketing plans, Click here for the “4 Insider Secrets to Great Marketing”.