Let’s face it, starting a business is scary. It is one of the biggest commitments you will make in your life and failure to launch will be one of the most public disappointments.

Fear Factors

• Pride  “I will embarrass myself”
• Money “I will end up living under a bridge and feeding off dumpsters”
• The Unknown “I can’t quite picture what my life will be like after this.” “It has never been done this way before.” “I have no control on whether people will actually like this or not”
• Timing “It is not the right time.” “I am too young …too old …too single …too married”.
• Perfectionism “Not yet! It has to be perfect.”

Fear is a mental block we must all overcome if we are to achieve our goals. The most successful people in my circle, entrepreneurs or not, are those who continually acknowledge their fears and do it anyway. They know that fear is a temporary state and turn fear into an experience of empowerment driven by one’s commitment to succeed.

Overcome Your Fears

• Value your intrinsic worth No business will ever make you feel more successful or valuable than you already are. “A business failure will kill me!” a friend once said. It really won’t. Sure, no one likes to fail at an endeavor. What you need to accept is that you will survive if you do. Further, are you really the type of person who worries about the opinion of people sitting on the sideline? If so, maybe you belong on the sideline, with them, getting their approval and getting nowhere in the game.
•  Manage Your Finances You can mitigate the risk of financial demise by saving for your business, opting for friendly sources of financing before going to market/to a bank. Friendly sources of financing include: 
  •  Crowdfunding: helps you collect small amounts from thousands of people
  • Business grants from the government: to help get you started with less ominous pressure which you would feel from dealing with a bank
• Embrace Ambiguity If the appearance of stability and security is a something you truly treasure, let me hold your hand and say, you are not meant be to an entrepreneur, get a job. If you can handle the temporary unease of not knowing whether things we pan out as planned, you will be rewarded once you get started and start producing for predictable results near term.
• The Time is Now There is no such thing as the right time to start a business; the only key factor here is discipline. With a little discipline, you can do a little, with a lot a discipline you can achieve anything. I like this quote from St. Francis of Assisi: “"Start by doing what's necessary. Then do what's possible. And suddenly you are doing the impossible."
• Good Enough Your idea does not have to be perfect! What you should look to have as a new entrepreneur is a minimum viable product, meaning it has to work. The bells and whistles can be incorporated later and financed by investors once you have demonstrated that you have a market and some sales under your belt. This only applies to you personally. As an entrepreneur, you do not need to make all the right decisions and have all the expertise required. You have the time to gain experience and improve yours.

I want to hear from you! Let me know some of the fears that have or are still holding you back.

Useful resources to boost your confidence:

• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
• Confidence by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
• The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely