The fear of failure is one of the 6 basic fears that innately, are a part of our framework. It is a fear that is stuck inside of us and is the prime catalyst for people not being able to free themselves from their situation, whatever it may be. The situation is probably one where you have a stable job but dread waking up in the morning knowing you’re about to spend 8-9 hours behind a desk, in an office and you’re completely unhappy. You’re stuck and you view each day as just being one closer to the weekend. You don’t want to start that business you’ve always dreamed or just pursued what you wanted, mostly because you fear that the business will fail and you don’t want to leave the stability your job brings you, even though you hate it and wake up with a “here we go again” mentality. You are crippled by the fear of failure and would rather be complacent in your unhappiness than take a leap of faith towards happiness, enjoyment and fulfillment. Since the fear of failure is stuck inside of us, the way we can overcome is through the way we deal with this fear. We have to alter the relationship we have with fear.
Some people chose to ignore and disregard the fact they might fail and be thrown back down to the basement. This type of approach, relieves all the pressure and is unbothered by judgement. This type of attitude, can pull us in either direction, but if we really know what we want and trust that it will better our life, it will consistently pull us in the right direction. Our decision making must reflect a lack of respect towards fear. As I touched upon, this type of thinking can lead to a lot of stupid decisions that we soon after regret. By simply understanding what is good for us, being unbothered by fear can also lead to greatness and the desire to do things that have never been done before. It has to be controlled and directed towards a definite purpose. If you are risking your life or health it may not be the best decision, but if it’s a risk towards bettering yourself and enjoying a happier life, the risk is well worth it. If you absolutely do not care about the possibility of failing you will become more willing to take on risk and in many cases, especially in business, more risk leads to more reward.
Risks, of course have to be calculated. The ultimate goal is to always maximize upside while limiting downside. You have to be able to get an accurate feel for the difference between the ceiling and the floor. What does that mean? The ceiling is how far you can get, the max level that you can achieve, and the floor is how low you can get. The goal is to raise the ceiling without moving the floor. You have to ask yourself “is what I am gaining going to offset or overcompensate for what I am losing.” For example, say you are on a budget but there is a somewhat expensive purchase you need make. The first thing you should really do is weigh your opportunity costs. Is what you are gaining going to add enough value to the point where it outweighs what you are losing and potentially giving up in its place? It is always better to take a risk and fail rather than to not try and wonder about what the results would have been. This sparks regret. Regret sparks lack of fulfillment and self-acceptance. Two fatal qualities to happiness and optimism.
The fear of failure is crippling and prevents people from moving out of their comfort zone, trying new things and pursuing their true passions. I believe that fear of failure is the number one cause of people not moving away from what is comfortable and familiar into more ambiguous situations. I believe than learning how to thrive in ambiguity lies a tremendous growth opportunity. I am going to examine risks that can be mitigated so the fear of failure is less prominent in your mind.
At this point I want to bring up the importance of Murphy’s Law. If you are not previously familiar with Murphy’s Law it states; whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. If you have things in your life that can bring you down and prevent you from moving forward, then they will in fact bring you down at some point. The longer we shove or problems under the rug, the bigger they get and the more difficult they are to overcome. You can only balance on that tight rope for so long. Circumstances are never an excuse for failing but sometimes they can play a role in the level of difficulty for success. More challenging circumstances, the more difficult the path to success, however you define it, becomes. You should always have a good understanding of your circumstances but should never let them control you or dictate your actions. We have the ability to create or change our circumstances.
The people we have in our life for example, can certainly affect our circumstances. If you have people in our lives who are unproductive, have no ambition, and don’t add to our happiness, then those people are examples of risks that can bring you down. Lack of ambition and time wasters are contagious and can cause us to adopt those same characteristics. Spending a lot of time around those people will have a very negative gradual effect on us. It won’t be something you realize at first but when you have no ‘want to’ or start adopting those negative qualities and act the same way as those around you, those people are not going to lift you up and put you in the right head space to continuously strive for growth. They will just bring you down with them. Lazy and careless people don’t want you to succeed. They want you to stay at the bottom with them so they don’t feel so bad about being a deadbeat. We have to have the ability to realize who is good for us and who is with us just to hang around. Whether you realize it or not, the people around us have a major impact on our attitude and the way we react to different situations. Eagles don’t flock and neither should you.
I believe the most important and easiest ways we can reduce the risk we take on is by possessing a strong moral compass and a dedication to conduct our operations ethically. Especially in business, ethics are the gateway to sustained success and the sinkhole to failure. While it’s certainly not the only component required to achieve long term success, it is absolutely pivotal and cannot be replaced by something else. If you are acting in an unethical manner, you will be exposed eventually. Secrets can only stay in the dark for so long before they are brought into the light, visible for everyone to see. Like I mentioned earlier, things can only get swept under the rug for so long. When problems are hidden for so long then the truth is even harder to deal with when the time comes.
There are so many examples of dishonest and unethical business practices. Need I remind you of Enron? They were one of the biggest companies in the world and got away with their dishonest and secretive ways for a while, but it eventually lead to their tragic and public downfall. It doesn’t matter how strong your business model is or how great your product or service is. If you are unethical you will absolutely lose the trust and support of your customers. If you really think that you can lie and deceive your way into a wildly successful business, you are in for a real surprise. Let’s just be honest, consumers don’t care about the quality of your product, there are a million other ones that are just like it if not better. Consumers buy from brands they know are actually doing what they say and advertise. If your marketing strategy is predicated on misleading and dishonest campaigns that make outlandish promises and guarantees, you will likely see some nice initial sales, but your long term numbers are going to suffer. You will suffer in the long term because you are not going to be able to keep those customers, well, because you lied to them. People are already apprehensive enough of big business and the ways in which they operate. It is easy for a consumer to feel like a victim to a large company that slams marketing down your throat and seemingly gives you no choice but to buy their product. I believe that all companies of any size and startups can gain a competitive edge just by placing morals and ethics at the forefront. Being honest and forthright in today’s environment will seem like a breath of fresh air for many people. However, you can’t just talk about it, you have to show it consistently to gain the trust of the consumers.
Consumers in 2020 want to buy from a company who has a strong moral compass and is going to be completely honest with their advertising and the way they engage with their customers. I look at brands like Toms Shoes and Warby Parker who have been able to maintain success with their people first mentality. You don’t see these brands running multi-million dollar ad campaigns constantly coming across your TV screen or on the radio or wherever. They built their brand based on reputation, honesty, and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). These two are great examples of brands who think not only about their customers but about worldwide impact. Both companies previously mentioned have a donation program set up where for every product sold, they send one off to a developing country. It is important to not to get too caught up in profits and selling as much as you can, it is about the mark you leave on the world. How do you want your brand to be remembered? I guarantee that NOBODY will remember you for all the revenue you generated and the overly expensive marketing campaigns you used. Brand reputation, honesty, commitment to CSR and operating ethically is going to be your best solution not only to get sales, but create a lifelong customer and brand advocate. Advocacy is the most effective way to build a real brand, and it also happens to be the cheapest.
As mentioned earlier, price and quality are not the only factors that will cause somebody to buy your product or service. More than anything else, people want honesty and consistency with the things they buy and consume. This is reason I believe Southwest Airlines has and has had so much success. They put their employees first by making sure they are trained, treated, and compensated well. In turn the employees are more motivated to put their best foot forward and make sure they strive to make their customers experience as enjoyable as possible. Can you see the downward effects here? Management takes care of and values their employees, therefore employees feel more security and enjoyment within their job, which causes them to value and respect the customer more. The customers feel respected, so they actually want to tell everyone they know that Southwest is the way to go. If you give respect you will get respect. With your business, it starts from the top down. Southwestern Airlines, led by Herb Kelleher, knew that if they can provide a great experience for their customer, they will have no choice but to choose Southwestern again the next time they want to fly.
We also see the importance of ethics with the rise of veganism. Veganism really started in the mid-20th century when the phrase was coined and the movement started to get on its feet. When I was growing up, you didn’t see many people who decided to be vegan, there were a ton of vegetarians, particularly in the Adventist community in which I grew up in, but still very few vegans. Vegans were often viewed the same way we would view a mystical creature. We were totally unfamiliar with them and just didn’t understand why they made this lifestyle choice. I know I use to think to myself “what the hell do these people eat?” Veganism is pretty commonplace now and continues to be on the rise. Maybe it was documentaries such as “Rotten” and “What the Health” that exposed some of the horror that goes on in the food industry on a macro level and how badly we treat our bodies with the food that goes into it. That probably added some fuel to the fire of vegan popularity. People are saying no to meat not necessarily because they simply feel bad for animals, we’ve been killing certain animals to provide us with food since the beginning of time. People didn’t kill animals because they’re inhumane or got some sort of odd satisfaction out of slaughtering farm animals, it was just a necessity for survival. Now, with so much information out there and seeing sicknesses breaking out from meat consumption, trust between consumers and meat producers is completely gone. People just don’t trust where their meat comes from. So many animals are mistreated and improperly handled before they are slaughtered, we don’t know what type of sicknesses and diseases we could become exposed to after eating the meat.
It isn’t 1912 anymore where if you don’t eat the deer your pappy went out and killed you will go to bed hungry and starve yourself. There are so many options and alternatives to processed meat, we can take advantage of the fact that we can consume meat that tastes good and isn’t destructive towards our bodies and health. As well as save a few helpless farm animals. I am personally not a vegan, but I get why so many people are (particularly millennials) and why I think the rise of veganism will continue to go upward. There is too much information out there on the health benefits and the positive externalities that can come from killing less animals and putting good food in our bodies, which come from clean and naturally produced sources. You can see evidence of this with Beyond Meat’s historic stock performance. The plant based meat company’s stock has skyrocketed at 163% in its opening day on the NYSE and over 550% since its original IPO date. People care about the products they buy. As more and more health data comes out, people will act on fear by choosing to eat at restaurants or buy food that is more plant based and ethically operated. This type of food costs more money, but the long term effects of a poor diet will be a whole lot more costly than dropping a couple extra bucks on a healthier and cleaner option. People are going to want their money going to products that are going to make them better in some way rather than spending less but furtherly damaging their health. This is in no way a persuasion tactic to try and get anyone to become vegan or change the way they eat and buy food. This entire segment on veganism is just an example of consumers caring about the things they purchase and supporting companies who have a purpose and don’t abandon ethics and morals in their operations.
There is so much information out there on companies and the products they make, if you are not putting the time in to ensure that you are respecting the end consumer and not trying to deceive them to earn a sale, then you will become obsolete. Product reviews, online forums and social media discussion don’t allow you to get away with unethical operations by lying to your customers or producing something that has negative effects on our health or our overall well-being. There is nowhere to hide anymore, you can fake it and make it but you can’t fake it and achieve sustained success. You can only be dishonest for so long. It will end at some point. Everything will be revealed in time. It is imperative to take the extra time today to put the right processes into place, treat your workers with respect, allow them to have a voice, and be honest in your marketing and advertising. You absolutely must be honest and straightforward with your consumers.
Another great way to reduce risk in your business is to focus on your existing customers. Double down on the people that have bought from you in the past and hone in on gaining their loyalty. Do not make this too complicated. When people are thirsty, they go to the well where they have always gotten their water, they don’t try to search for a new water source. If they came through for you and liked what they bought, the chances of them coming back for more are highly favorable for you. Don’t ignore this, focus on increasing loyalty and satisfaction from your existing customer base. Your customers will not only refrain from going to a competitor but will be an advocate for your products and your company. A loyal customer is the best type of marketing tool you can utilize. Do great work for a few people and watch how the opportunities to do great for many will appear. When you take these simple steps you have the opportunity to reach a much larger audience and expand your reach. A lot of this will happen organically and you don’t even really have to do all that much, except care for your customers and continuously encourage your existing customers. You minimize the risk you take on by avoiding trying to reach every new market and new customer you can, but first making sure that you dominate the market that is responsible for the large majority of your revenue.
Another great way to reduce risk and eliminate the fear of failure is by taking care of your finances. If you understand how to handle your money and resist taking on debt, you can feel more secure and in turn create more room for error. Nobody wants to be “one emergency away” from being in a serious financial bind. Not having enough money is probably the most common excuse we make for not putting ourselves out there and making the most of what we have. The key to this is not putting a price tag on experiences. Having the opportunity to gain experiences may reduce the balance in your bank account but also may increase the balance of your inner chemistry (Mind, Body, Soul, and Spirit). There is no way to measure the enrichment of our minds and souls with money. This goes back to the principle that money is not the objective, happiness is. So if we know that something will add to our happiness then it’s worth the financial loss you might take because of it. Don’t get this confused with materialistic items. Most times a new car or new watch aren’t going to bring us anything of substance internally. Maybe that trip to Africa or that keynote conference, or an online course might. I don’t know, everybody’s interpretation of a great experience is different.
We should look to buy things that are going to bring us value for our souls and minds rather than just buying things to impress others or make ourselves feel like “we got it like that” or bring us popularity with others. Is it really worth buying something you can’t afford, just to get a compliment from someone else that you don’t even really care about? Or get some more likes and comments when you flex with it on Instagram? I promise you it’s not. It is a whole lot easier to take some chances or start something you are passionate about if you don’t have to worry about paying off your luxury car or luxury home that you had no business purchasing. We of course have to pay for fixed expenses, there’s nothing we can do about that. I am talking about avoiding buying that third car or that trip to Disney land or that new Rolex. Think about buying something that will increase in value after you buy it and has the chance to actually make you money. Cars, watches, and other expensive items are examples of typical impulse buys. It’s want you wanted emotionally because you think it will boost your status, but logically it makes no sense to buy something that makes you look cool but weighs heavy on your finances just because you were insecure.
There is a way we can avoid impulse buys and things we absolutely don’t need. I know this sounds way easier said than done, but every time you have the urge to drop $180 on your 30th pair of sneakers and you reconcile the loss in your head, stop what you are doing and take that money and invest it rather than waste it. Those shoes aren’t going to make you any money and are probably going to lose their value as soon as you put them on, not to mention go out of style within the next 8-12 months. An investment on the other hand, will do the opposite. Well wouldn’t it be easier to just keep the money in your account? Yeah maybe, but the money was already spent in your mind. You worked it out in your mind that you don’t really mind losing that $180 and already accepted the loss. So instead of having those new sneakers, buy a mutual fund or ETF where your money will work for you, instead of you working for your money. People are hesitant to invest since they don’t want to lose money. Both initially and down the road. Well of course, nobody wants to lose money. But since you already accepted the initial loss in your mind, it is much easier to come to terms with dropping some cash on an investment. You accepted the fact that its spent money already and you can look forward to the added money you will receive as your investment grows over time. It is so easy to invest these days with apps you can download on your phone like Acorns, Robin Hood, and Stash. It is so simple there is no reason anymore to not be investing. You can learn investment basics, view performances of each stock and related articles that provide you with more context and useful information required to try and make a successful investment. You can even open up a retirement account on Acorns and begin putting some money away in the vault to begin your long term savings. Understanding basic investment principles are extremely important and not difficult to learn. Following a few simple steps like – buy low and sell high, broad diversification, dollar cost averaging, and being aware of but not afraid of risk. Investing is complex but you will learn over time and this is really all you need to know to just get started. Paying attention to the news, reading, and gathering information about emerging industries, companies, services, and products are great ways to identify potential investment opportunities that could yield some above average returns. There is no way to fully and accurately predict the market and find that “sure thing” but having good information and doing some research will give you a better chance of making a good investment and getting good returns. Some investment areas that I am looking into right now are Esports, artificial intelligence and automation, cannabis, solar energy and other companies that are established but could have a lot of room for upward growth like Netflix, Tesla, and Spotify. These are already well established brands and companies but their potential to expand and become even bigger is very prevalent. The most important thing is to invest in something that you believe in and invest in a company that stands for and has similar belief systems as you. If you are in a solar energy business, it wouldn’t make any sense to invest in a company that specializes in coal production. It is much easier to pour your hard earned money into an investment if it’s something you can get behind and believe in. You are helping that industry or company you invest since you are giving them your hard earned money and you are partially, very partially responsible for some of their success. When you believe in what you are investing, the wins will be more rewarding and the losses won’t be as difficult. Another piece of investment advice is to invest in people not products. If there is a CEO that you really have a lot of faith and confidence in and believe in their ability to produce results, you will feel much better with your decision than investing in a product in which you have no information about the people behind it. Investing can be complex and difficult to understand, but there is something for everyone out there. Make money your slave, watch it work and reap the benefits.
We shouldn’t be viewing risk in such a negative light. Risk is an avenue to success. There are ways to be smart about it though. If we lessen the unnecessary risk, we can be more confident in our ability to take on necessary risk to get yourself out there, start your business or passion projects and achieve success. Unnecessary risk includes; fearing failure, deceiving your customers, and being careless with your money. I have shown how these things can be eliminated and how we can overcome obstacles that have the potential to bring us down. Failure will always be there hanging in the background. We cannot let ourselves become a slave to failure. Take control of your life by assessing areas that can take you down and focus on completely destroying them. Once those are out of the way we claim full responsibility for our results. Take action and don’t even think about the negative outcome. Envision your success and whatever you think can prohibit that, that’s where your attention should be at first, then move towards building in the areas that are going to be responsible for your success.
Jonathan McClure / The Rolling J
References
Bondarenko, P. (n.d.). Enron Scandal . Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica : https://www.britannica.com/topic/Securities-and-Exchange-Commission
Dictionary.com . (2002). Retrieved from Murphy’s Law : https://www.dictionary.com/browse/murphy-s-law
Kune, K. A. (Director). (2017). What the Health [Motion Picture].
Market Watch . (2019, May 5). Retrieved from Beyond Meat soares 163% in biggest-popping U.S. IPO since 2000: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/beyond-meat-soars-163-in-biggest-popping-us-ipo-since-2000-2019-05-02
Suddath, C. (2008). Time. Retrieved from A Brief History of Veganism : https://time.com/3958070/history-of-veganism/
Warby Parker . (n.d.). Retrieved from Impact report : https://www.warbyparker.com/?bidkw=warby%20parker&dvc=c&network=g&mobile=&searchntwk=1&content=&creative=354061171147&adposition=1t1&placement=&target=&keyword=warby%20parker&matchtype=e&mkwid=s&pmt=e&pdv=c&product_category=&utm_source=google&utm_medium=c
Related Posts
COMMIT TO BEING A LIFELONG LEARNER
Being a lifelong learner means that you are constantly on the pursuit of knowledge. When you commit to being a lifelong learner, the mind can never become complacent. A complacent mind will hold onto previously held beliefs and opinions even when new information is presented. The complacent mind is unwilling to change because it does not want to seem inconsistent.
HOW TO CONNECT WITH AND LEARN FROM NATURE
Rarely do we ever have an opportunity to relax, observe, and listen. Nature provides us with fulfillment and enrichment that we desperately need. It provides with the opportunity to take in and appreciate our surroundings.
J OF THE DAY – Maximizing our time on Earth
We as humans understand that there will be a fateful day where our lives on Earth end. Yet so many of us do not take full advantage of the time we have. We spend time worrying about things that really do not matter at all. We view life as an obstacle instead of a wonderful journey full of beauty, surprise, and adventure.
J OF THE DAY – 5 habits that support growth
Our character cannot be good if our actions our bad. Our character is not set in stone. In other words, we have the ability to both lose our character and build it up. Our character can only change if we do.
J OF THE DAY – How to engage yourself more
The easiest way to a dull, frustrating, and lethargic life is by spending your time doing things that don’t interest you. Your mind craves the feeling of interest, do not deprive your mind of this. Following you interests is how you engage yourself more. It will also help develop passion, and a desire to learn more.
J OF THE DAY – Socrates’s 3 responsibilities of all humans
If we simply take everything at face value or the way it appears, we are neglecting the most significant differentiating factor between us and animals. Which is the ability to think in a rational way. This is doing a disservice to all the progress we have made as humans. Our impulses can be strong, but our ability to think and reason is much stronger. Our ability to think and rationalize is our greatest superpower.
J OF THE DAY – Why you should always speak your truth
It is not just our duty to absorb the lessons and knowledge of those who came before us. It is also our responsibility to create and add to the advancement of society. We need to speak our truth. Hiding our truth from the world is a slap in the face to all those who came before us.
J OF THE DAY – Good is always around the corner
No matter how down things seem to be, something good is always around the corner. Stay focused on all the positive things in your life. Even the smallest of things. This will help keep you from getting to down on yourself and letting circumstances affect your happiness and inner peace.
J OF THE DAY – Depth of experience
Think about depth of experience like a sponge full of water. Depth of experience is like squeezing the sponge until all the water comes out. Depth of experience allows you to get the absolute most out of whatever you are doing.
J OF THE DAY – Don’t let next year become never
Don’t let next year become never. When you give yourself a long time frame to get started, it is the same thing as when you think too much about your idea. You end up convincing yourself it is not worth it.
J OF THE DAY – Balancing between too much or too little
Habits like drinking, smoking, eating junk food can only cause serious damage if you do them either consistently or in excess. It is not usually the habits themselves that become problematic, it’s the frequency in which we do them.
J OF THE DAY – Dealing with your mistakes
If you agonize over a mistake you will become afraid of mistakes. When you are afraid of mistakes you are really afraid of life. That is because life is full of mistakes. You cannot embrace life itself if you are avoiding mistakes.
Wow, amazing blog layout! How lengthy have you been running a blog for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is excellent, let alone the content!