Overcoming fear in business

If you have already started your business, or you are in the midst of dreaming about it, you’ll be able to relate to the feeling that ranges from nagging doubt, to heart palpitations.

It’s fear. The entrepreneur’s enemy #1 shows up in a lot of ways… limiting yourself and the sheer scope of your business, being afraid to charge more for your services, not getting the help you need, and hedging your bets by following what “everybody else” does instead of what you truly want to do.

Then there’s the heart-in-your-throat kind of fear, especially when you stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone. What if my big idea is a dud? What will others think? Will I have to go back to the corporate world? What if I fail?

Like President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the American people paralyzed in the grips of the Great Depression, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

What President Roosevelt brought to the nation was hope, combined with action. Now, I can’t promise to deliver the solution to today’s economy but I can tell you that fear is normal, and the best gift you can give yourself is permission to feel it, and then keep moving!

Know that behind every successful entrepreneur is fear – and guess what, it doesn’t go away! The most successful entrepreneurs feel it too.

In fact, if you aren’t feeling at least a little uncomfortable, you probably aren’t pushing at the edges of your comfort zone, which is precisely where you need to be to reach your most fabulous potential. Here’s what Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz fame had to say about this last week when I interviewed her for the Entrepreneurs Unplugged telesummit.

“There’s a lot of fear that goes into having your own business and it’s one of those things where I don’t think you can ever have top 10 tips for not being terrified, right? That’s not the way you can get rid of fear is with bullet points, but I think that it’s important for people to realize that if you’re not at least a little bit afraid, you’re probably not shooting for the right goals.

If you’re absolutely certain that this is going to be a cake walk and it’s just no big deal, if you have that feeling that it doesn’t put you a little bit on edge, you’re not shooting for the right stuff. You’re getting yourself a job. If it’s safe then it’s really not what business is supposed to be because I don’t think it can be exciting, if there’s not a little bit of fear attached to it. But I think it’s important to realize that between the feedback that I’ve got and people have asked questions I’ve talked to over a thousand people and all of them are scared and some of them are pretty freaking successful… just be aware that other people are afraid because then, you don’t feel so alone and I think that’s some of way the fear comes in, because fear begets fear and more anxiety.”