What do I call the evolution of fear for entrepreneurs?
It is the 4 types of fear business owners experience at various stages or phases of building a business.
And why do knowing the different types of fear helpful?
So that you can RECOGNIZE them, REMOVE them from your mind, and RETURN to building your business. You also want to SURROUND yourself with people that can RECOGNIZE, REMOVE and RETURN.
Here are the 4 types of fear for entrepreneurs:
Fear of Failure (FoF)
When you start out your business venture, the most common one is Fear of Failure (FoF).
Do you remember thinking:
- I can not fail, my livelihood is riding on this.
- I will work harder than anyone to succeed, plus I am not going back to corporate.
- I have a proven track record of success, so I will also succeed as an entrepreneur.
You know what, you are right.
You don’t know what you don’t know at this point.
That is okay.
You are hell bent on serving those that you created your business for.
Your track record of success and your confidence will keep you moving forward at the early stages.
Fear of failure fuels the success at the beginning of the entrepreneur journey.
Impostor Syndrome (IoS)
Then after you gain momentum for your business, you start to realize that you are not the only “one”.
There are other experts in your field.
You start to read their “stuff”.
You see there website.
You see their posts, videos, products, social media followers, their experience.
You might start to think:
- I am not as good, as experienced, as polished, as published, as far along, etc. as THAT person.
- WHO AM I? I don’t know all that information, who would ever hire, buy, or listen to me?
- I feel like an IMPOSTOR, I don’t know that much.
- How could I ever compete? There are already so many people doing this.
- Maybe I don’t know as much as I thought.
Welcome to the Impostor Syndrome (IoS).
Where you compare yourself to others that are at different stages in their journey than you are.
You may be in business year one and comparing to another in your field in business year 7.
Really?
That is is not fair to yourself.
But you do it anyways.
Well, don’t.
Trust that you are on the right place on the right journey at the right time.
Really.
Also known as the “Who Am I” or “Comparison-itis”.
Shiny Object Syndrome (SoS)
As you continue to build your business, the Shiny Object Syndrome (SoS) will also appear.
What is SoS? It is chasing the next new thing. The next product, the next new social media platform, then next new program.
The NEXT NEW thing that you think will provide you the solution to be successful.
This is also known as the Perfectionist and here is how it might sound:
- I will launch my website when it is PERFECT. I hate to break it to you, but I don’t know anyone that is 100% happy with your website. Get it great and move on.
- I will make sure my online training has ALL the answers and will keep searching until I find them all.
- I won’t publish my blog because I don’t know enough about this topic.
- (watch another video, listen to another podcast, blah, blah,blah).
- I will release my videos when I don’t make any MISTAKES.
These are acts to postpone acting, launching, committing.
This is also known as the Perfectionist or Always Learning phase as well. It will never be perfect. You will always find something. Launch when you are 80% complete, and make adjustments as needed.
Fear of Success (FoS)
The fear of success starts to rear it’s ugly head as you keep getting more successful.
You know you are close to getting the success you wanted. In fact, more than you expected.
You are starting to realize that your life and those around you will start to change.
RECOGNIZE, REMOVE and RETURN.
People will look at your differently.
Treat you differently.
React to you differently.
New people.
And you have never been in this position before.
Never felt this.
Never experienced this.
Never had this much impact.
Never made this much money.
Never had this much notoriety.
Your life is about to change.
And you have no idea how.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Hold on for the ride.
You are already comfortable being comfortable, so this should be easy.
Part of being a successful entrepreneur is handling this fear and unknown, and understanding the evolution of fear for entrepreneurs.
And now you are more aware.
And now you can continue forward.
Now go kill it.