Fear and Perspective for Better Business
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
Over the years, I’ve often thought about that quote from Dune in many different situations from being stuck on a ski lift for what seemed to be an hour (it was 10 min … I’ve got issues with heights) to saying “yes” to talking in front of a business group (I’m a legit introvert and speaking in front of crowds is not one of my strengths). It really does sum up fear — it’s a mind-killer. You give fear half the chance and it will win.
Being a small business owner and running a design agency for over 20 years has taught me a lot of things, including giving me different perspectives on fear. Read on to see how I found the ability to, “let it pass through me” and perhaps you can apply some of the same perspective for fears that may pop up for you while running your small business.
Use Fear
A certain amount of fear is healthy. Fear can actually keep us safe sometimes. Here’s a good example… if you’re not trained in mountain climbing, but try to push through a fear you have of not climbing a mountain, you could be putting yourself in serious danger. However, fear can also be a catalyst for preparation. You fear climbing the mountain, but still want to do it. You have no experience climbing mountains, so you get some training and plan a small climb first. Your fear has actually guided you to take the proper steps to help keep you safer, you’re better equipped to face it, and you bolster your self confidence that you can face it.
Did you notice how a made that example the fear of not climbing a mountain rather than actually climbing the mountain? I’ve found that the fear of not doing/being able to do something is actually pretty common, especially when it comes to running a small business. Fear of not being able to pay the bills, not generating enough income, not hiring the right employee, etc. are all relatable fears when you’ve taken that step to be self-employed.
I’ve boiled it down to about 4 steps …
Step 1 is to identify the fears. Get an actual piece of paper and pen out and start writing down the fears. You’ll notice that sometimes there’s a whole string of them that are interconnected. If you end up having more than a couple, you can also number them from worst to minor.
Step 2 is to research the best preparation for the “worst case scenario” of each fear. For example, you have a fear of not having enough working capital for your business. Researching things like improvements you can make to your marketing to help bring in more business as well as business lines of credit might be good places to start. You want to ensure that you’ve done the planning and preparation so that you can quickly recover if something “bad” happens.
Step 3 is to take action. Research in this type of scenario is really wasted time if you don’t follow through and take action. If you have a fear of hiring the wrong employee, do employment screening, get referrals from your network, and thoroughly interview candidates. You’ll feel better knowing you took all the steps you could before you had to face the final decision of hiring someone new. Following through and taking action on your research gives you more of a safety net for those worst case scenarios.
Step 4 is to document what works and what doesn’t. I think it’s important to not skip this step. If after tackling the first fear with steps 1–3, that fear is still bothering you, then you either need to consider repeating steps 1 and 2 with different research/action or getting some outside assistance.
The first couple years I was in business, I really was doing everything myself. I was also saying “yes” to every project that came my way and doing other inexperienced things such as agreeing to take on a project with no written contract with the client. The first time I had someone walk off with work I’d delivered and skip out on paying for it, I was angry. First at them, and then myself. But the anger gave way to a fear of what if it happened again. So I researched what other small agencies were doing and got to work on a written contract. This one was actually easy to document because, well, the contract was written. What I found out though, was that my first contract didn’t cover me for the next, “worst case scenario”. This time though, I pulled in an expert (a lawyer, who also happened to be a client of mine) to help me modify the contracts further. We even thought of a few more scenarios that could happen and added sections to address those. In only a short time, that fear I had pretty much disappeared and I knew I was on the right track by identifying, researching, taking the necessary action (up to and including asking for outside help), and documenting.
For me, these 4 steps usually do the trick. You may have found different ways to handle fears that you’ve faced in business and that’s awesome! If you haven’t yet, the important thing is that you find a way to face the fear and do what you need to overcome, or “let it pass through you”. Success is waiting for you on the other side.
