Overcome Fear of Failure – Just Ship It!

One of the biggest reasons that we are not attaining the success that we want is because we are failing to try. We are failing to try because we are afraid of failing.?We are afraid that if we put ourselves, our product, service, analysis, idea or presentation out there, we will be exposing ourself to criticism and maybe making a fool of ourself. Instead, we don't even try and thus don't gain the success that we so desperately desire.

While it seems a life of hunkering down and hiding behind our “Video Off” button would be safer, it is in fact causing our failure.

Well, it's time to “Just Ship It!”.

Whatever idea, project, or product you have swirling in our head, get it out. Maybe it is starting that blog or presenting our strategic plan to our boss, but you don't want to risk being wrong and the perceived repercussions that accompany that. Just get it out there.

Steve Jobs said, “Real artists ship.” So…Ship it!

In his book, the War of Art, Stephen Pressfield wrote, “The way to beat back the resistance that holds you back is to ship it. Get your work out into the world!”

Let me be radical about this. Maybe what we need is to put it out there and fail. To destroy the grip the resistance has on us, which will then allow us to advance to the next step finally. By the way, no one gets to success without having to travel over the stepping-stones of failure.

Remember a few successes that were born out of failure:

·???????Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because his editor felt that he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas”.

·???????Oprah Winfrey was publicly fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore for getting “too emotionally invested with her stories.”

·???????Steven Spielberg was rejected by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts multiple times.

·???????Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known as Doctor Seuss, had his first book rejected by 27 publishers.

The list is endless. Vera Wang. Sylvester Stallone. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Hilda Solis. Steve Harvey.

Do not let the idea of failure stop you. Just ship it!

So what is that thing that you know you should do or have been working on, but have been too afraid to put out there, or too afraid to release because you're waiting for it to be perfect? Here's what I want you to do:

Just do it.

Release it.

Email it.

Publish it.

Ship it.

Get it out there.

As Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, advised, “If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've shipped too late.”

Put it out there anyway. It is a crucial step to overcoming the Ready-Aim-Aim-Aim Disease or The-Not-Ever-Good-Enough Syndrome. Both will kill you and your greater success.

So today, ship something too early…something not ready…maybe even raw. Just beat the resistance back by getting it out.

Overcome Fear of Failure – just ship it!

(Credit to Darren Hardy and DarrenDaily for the basis of this article)