Afraid to Succeed

Everyone who says that they are afraid of failure are actually afraid of success.

Success is often very public and failure is extremely private.

When I started writing my first book, a thought to a million dollars, I had written that events were such that your successes were public and so were your failures. If nobody showed up for an event, it was quite public.

I was wrong. 

If nobody shows up for an event nobody knows that apart from yourself.

Edison failed a thousand times in private but when he did succeed, it was in the public spotlight. His failures were so private that he had to tell people that he had, in fact, failed.

Working with entrepreneurs I meet several and one of the common things that I see is that people are afraid to succeed. They will talk as if they are filled with confidence but in reality, they are really afraid to succeed.

People who are unwilling to share their ideas are not afraid that someone would steal their idea, at least then they can take credit for it. They are afraid that someone might actually think that the idea is worth the while. They are afraid to have the idea validated because it would mean that they need to take the next step!

I know an entrepreneur who has a product, is selling the product to customers but refuses to build a simple website with a myriad set of excuses. 10-year-olds can build a website today, with the tools that are available online. What is stopping you from building one? The fear of success.

Success will thrust you in the spotlight and you need to take responsibility for it. This is something that most are uncomfortable with. 

They will say that they are fearful of failure or rejection. In fact, failure or rejection allows you to put aside something and move ahead. Why would you want to be tethered to something if it is not going to deliver success? Fail fast, invariably you will also fail alone and nobody is going to care a damn about it. Move ahead from there in search of success.

Take risks. Put yourself out there. Fail, feel bad, forgive yourself and move ahead.

If you ask for something, there is a 50% chance that the answer could be ‘NO’. If you don’t ask at all, the answer is definitely ‘NO’.