3 Fears Holding You Back From Massive Success as An Entrepreneur

The bigger your dreams…

The stronger your drive…

The more powerful your need to succeed….

The worse it gets.

I’m talking about fear.

Sooner or later, every entrepreneur – even rockstars like Elon Musk or Richard Branson –struggle with fear.

It’s an inescapable part of the entrepreneur’s journey.

But if you’re hungry for success, you need to answer this question…

Are you going to control your fear or are you going to let fear control you?

The truth is, learning how to overcome your fear is one of the most powerful tools you can have in your entrepreneurial toolkit. It’s a skill that will put you way ahead of your competition, help you reach higher, achieve more and live your potential.

Here are 3 of the biggest fears that hold you back from achieving massive success as an entrepreneur and how you can overcome each one.

#1 - Fear of Success

You may not think you suffer from this one but think again.

Do you find yourself repeatedly self-sabotaging your own efforts at getting to the next level? Do you resist taking action on your big goals? Do you fall back on old behavior patterns and habits that hold you back?

These are symptoms of this fear and it can destroy your chances of becoming all you can be as an entrepreneur. One of the reasons many entrepreneurs suffer from the fear of success is because they believe if you want to win big, you’ve got to lose big.

For instance, if you want to make a ton of money in your business, you must work nonstop, give up self-care, and sacrifice your time with friends and loved ones.

This is simply not true.

As an entrepreneur, you have the freedom to design your life the way you want – that’s the whole point of running your own business. I personally know business owners who work 3 days a week and bring in upwards of $20,000 each month – this is way more than the income they were earning working at a full-time job.

How to overcome this fear: 

Understand that entrepreneurship is ultimately a series of decisions around what you want to create in your life and business. The secret is to get clear on your goals and values from the start.

This way you can make conscious decisions to get where you want to go and follow your own path – not anyone else’s. When you do this you’ll stop fearing success and welcome it instead.

#2 - Fear of Imperfection

Deep down we all want to be perfect.

We never want to endure failure. We never want to make mistakes. Ever

This arises from wanting to protect yourself from the “shame” of imperfection…

We don’t want others to see us as “ordinary.” We want to know we can achieve all our goals right away...

But the truth is, there is no shame in starting small, experiencing failure and making mistakes.

It’s an integral part of the journey to phenomenal success.

Just ask Oprah who was born into poverty, and survived abuse and trauma as a child to become one of the richest, most respected and loved public figures in the world.

Then there’s Steven Spielberg who was rejected twice by the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, but went on to become multiple Academy Award winning movie director…

And Walt Disney who was told by the editor of the newspaper where he worked as a young man that he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

How to overcome this fear: 

Redefine and reframe imperfection in your mind and in your heart. See it for what it really is - a chance to start where you are and learn from mistakes so you can keep getting stronger, faster, better.

Fear of imperfection has no power over you unless you let it stop you from going for your dreams. So, give yourself permission to make mistakes and don’t let failure keep you down.

Embrace imperfection and never let it hold you back. Ever.

#3 - Fear of Change

Everyone fears change. Not just entrepreneurs.

And with good reason.

Our human brain is wired to resist change. To our early ancestors, a single change - such as a slight drop in temperature – could bring deadly consequences. Fear of change in ancient mankind worked as a protective defense mechanism

Fast-forward thousands of years and our inborn fear of change…

Hasn’t changed much at all.

Changes in our business or personal life often motivates feelings of deep fear and resistance. This is bad news for business owners because successful entrepreneurship is about being able to shift, move, transform, grow…

And change, change, change. Constantly.

Twitter began life as Odeo – a podcast subscription company – before pivoting into its current format. Instagram started out as a check-in app with multiple game-based, elements before the founders shifted and stripped all of those elements except one – photos.

William Wrigley Jr. – of Wrigley’s chewing gum – didn’t start out selling gum. He sold soap and baking powder.

The most successful entrepreneurs in the world value and accept change as part of their journey.

And so should you.

How to overcome this fear:

Approach change with a “management” mindset. Study the details of the change in question and see where you can break things down into smaller, more manageable steps. Avoid big, sweeping changes, whenever possible. This will help you decrease fear and deal with change in a smart, practical way.

Overcoming your fears is going to challenge you and it’s going to push you way past your comfort zone…

But I can tell you with 100% certainty - it’s worth the trouble.

When you finally get to a place where you can look at your fears, feel them in your heart and move forward anyway…

You become unstoppable.

And that’s when you get to create massive success, achieve your goals…

And live your biggest dreams as an entrepreneur.

This article was originally posted on the Evercoach blog.