Listen to the Audio Blog
Read the Article
Today I'm going to talk about how to identify and overcome the three major fears of starting a business. The reality is as I've said before, many of us can start and run great business. If you really think about it, if somebody else is paying you to work for them then that means what you're doing is of value. So the question that I have to ask black professionals who haven't started a business is why? There are a variety of reasons, many legitimate, and that's ok. But one of the main reasons that I found people don't when they want to is because of fear. I understand why some of us black professionals are afraid and that is why I am going to identify the three main sources of fear and a simple way we can overcome them.
There are three primary reasons why folks are afraid of starting a business. Of course there are more, but in my experience these there are three big ones. The first one is because you have no frame of reference you have no frame of reference. To put it in a simpler way we're afraid of the dark. Think about why we are afraid of the dark. We can go in the same house that we've always been in for the majority of our life, have the lights turned off and have to walk to the dark and be afraid. Why? It is because we have no frame of reference. We don't remember where things are. We don't know if somebody's in the house. We don't know if we're going to stumble or trip or fall. Because we can't see we have no frame of reference.
There are three primary reasons why folks are afraid of starting a business. Of course there are more, but in my experience these there are three big ones. The first one is because you have no frame of reference you have no frame of reference. To put it in a simpler way we're afraid of the dark. Think about why we are afraid of the dark. We can go in the same house that we've always been in for the majority of our life, have the lights turned off and have to walk to the dark and be afraid. Why? It is because we have no frame of reference. We don't remember where things are. We don't know if somebody's in the house. We don't know if we're going to stumble or trip or fall. Because we can't see we have no frame of reference.
This is why people are afraid as a professional to start a business. We weren't trained from an early age to be business owners. We were trained to work for somebody else. We were trained to go punch a clock. Our whole educational system designed us to be and employee. One of the main things that we were taught is that you go to school to "get a good job". How many times have you heard that one? So now we're professionals. We have all this education. We developed all this talent and skill. Now we want to start on our own. We are walking into the dark. It is the same room. We have the same talent, the same abilities but now we're walking into the dark of "business ownership".We have no frame of reference and as a result for us it's scary! So that's one of the big fears, no frame of reference or fear of the dark.
The second fear is fear of failure. When we say we fear failure it is not failure we really fear. What we really fear is what other people will think about us if we fail. So really the fear of failure is the fear of being humiliated. We believe that if we start something, if we try something new and it doesn't work people are going to look at us differently or negatively. Very few people don't care what other people think about them. Sometimes it isn't even what other people will think about us, but things that our parents or others put into us that when we were young that cause us to fear failure. That is a deeper topic though that I am going to cover in more detail in a later article. So fear of failure is the number two reason black professionals don't start their business.
The third fear, fear of loss, well this one's a little bit different than the first two. This fear has a particular level of legitimacy to it more so than the other ones. When we say we fear loss what we are really saying behind the scenes is that we fear missed opportunity. When fear loss, that missed opportunity, we are afraid of what will happen if we commit time to a business and it doesn't work. We are worried that we will have wasted time, energy and attention that we could have used on other things we care about. We could have spent time more time at work trying to get a promotion. We could have spent time going to a football game or enjoying more time to ourselves or with our family. So we fear what we could lose if we focus on starting a business. This is a legitimate fear because business is about taking a risk. By taking a risk it means that there's an opportunity that you're giving up to get something else. This fear of loss keeps many black professionals from starting a successful business.
Now that we've identified these fears how do we overcome them? In the future I will cover many more ways to overcome fear, but in this article I want to focus on the biggest, most powerful and most important one. The most important thing to overcoming fear and getting started is consistently putting people in your life and around you who are trying to do the same thing as you or have done what you want to do and succeeded. Here is an example of why this is powerful. I want you to take yourself back to the last Superbowl victory and what happened after the Superbowl in the streets. Do you remember when everybody was out on the streets and they're flipping over cars and lighting fires and causing all kinds of destruction? We call this mob rule because people are doing together what they would be afraid to do by themselves.
How many of those people would go out on their own during the daytime and try to flip over a car or light something on fire publicly? They do it in a group because the group allows them to lower their inhibitions and do things that they normally would be afraid to do. In the case of mob rule it is called negative peer pressure.
There is also something called positive peer pressure and that's what you get around people that are going to push you to be the best. Being around positive people trying to do what you are doing or have done what you are trying to do will allow you to push through your fear. The positive peer pressure will help you launch your own business and you will help them launch or grow theirs! When you get stuck or your fear catches up to you point they can push you through it. They can show you it's going to be alright! That's one of the reasons that I started the black side business. I understood that one of the things people say most about entrepreneurship is that they feel alone. So what I'm trying to do is build a family of people that are interested, that have talent, that are ready to go and launch but just need some support in doing so.
I guarantee this. If you can overcome your fears once you start you are going to be very successful. But you have to identify your fears and then put people who are trying to do what you are trying to do or have done what you are trying to do around you.
In conclusion, we went through the three main fears. You have the fear of no frame of reference or the fear of the dark. This means that you haven't done it before and therefore you don't know what's going to be laying around to trip you up or to harm you. You have the fear of failure which is really the fear of humiliation. You are afraid about what people will think about you if you start and fail. You have the fear of loss or missed opportunity. If you start a business what will I be missing out on or what will not be able to do with the time and energy you commit to the business. Finally, the number one way to get over all three of those fears is to get around people that are trying to do the same thing as you and those who have done what you want to do. Use that positive peer pressure to overcome the fear. I believe you will start a side business that fits you perfectly and allows you to make your own money, be a role model and take care of your family! That's all I got for you. I love you and I'm out.
The second fear is fear of failure. When we say we fear failure it is not failure we really fear. What we really fear is what other people will think about us if we fail. So really the fear of failure is the fear of being humiliated. We believe that if we start something, if we try something new and it doesn't work people are going to look at us differently or negatively. Very few people don't care what other people think about them. Sometimes it isn't even what other people will think about us, but things that our parents or others put into us that when we were young that cause us to fear failure. That is a deeper topic though that I am going to cover in more detail in a later article. So fear of failure is the number two reason black professionals don't start their business.
The third fear, fear of loss, well this one's a little bit different than the first two. This fear has a particular level of legitimacy to it more so than the other ones. When we say we fear loss what we are really saying behind the scenes is that we fear missed opportunity. When fear loss, that missed opportunity, we are afraid of what will happen if we commit time to a business and it doesn't work. We are worried that we will have wasted time, energy and attention that we could have used on other things we care about. We could have spent time more time at work trying to get a promotion. We could have spent time going to a football game or enjoying more time to ourselves or with our family. So we fear what we could lose if we focus on starting a business. This is a legitimate fear because business is about taking a risk. By taking a risk it means that there's an opportunity that you're giving up to get something else. This fear of loss keeps many black professionals from starting a successful business.
Now that we've identified these fears how do we overcome them? In the future I will cover many more ways to overcome fear, but in this article I want to focus on the biggest, most powerful and most important one. The most important thing to overcoming fear and getting started is consistently putting people in your life and around you who are trying to do the same thing as you or have done what you want to do and succeeded. Here is an example of why this is powerful. I want you to take yourself back to the last Superbowl victory and what happened after the Superbowl in the streets. Do you remember when everybody was out on the streets and they're flipping over cars and lighting fires and causing all kinds of destruction? We call this mob rule because people are doing together what they would be afraid to do by themselves.
How many of those people would go out on their own during the daytime and try to flip over a car or light something on fire publicly? They do it in a group because the group allows them to lower their inhibitions and do things that they normally would be afraid to do. In the case of mob rule it is called negative peer pressure.
There is also something called positive peer pressure and that's what you get around people that are going to push you to be the best. Being around positive people trying to do what you are doing or have done what you are trying to do will allow you to push through your fear. The positive peer pressure will help you launch your own business and you will help them launch or grow theirs! When you get stuck or your fear catches up to you point they can push you through it. They can show you it's going to be alright! That's one of the reasons that I started the black side business. I understood that one of the things people say most about entrepreneurship is that they feel alone. So what I'm trying to do is build a family of people that are interested, that have talent, that are ready to go and launch but just need some support in doing so.
I guarantee this. If you can overcome your fears once you start you are going to be very successful. But you have to identify your fears and then put people who are trying to do what you are trying to do or have done what you are trying to do around you.
In conclusion, we went through the three main fears. You have the fear of no frame of reference or the fear of the dark. This means that you haven't done it before and therefore you don't know what's going to be laying around to trip you up or to harm you. You have the fear of failure which is really the fear of humiliation. You are afraid about what people will think about you if you start and fail. You have the fear of loss or missed opportunity. If you start a business what will I be missing out on or what will not be able to do with the time and energy you commit to the business. Finally, the number one way to get over all three of those fears is to get around people that are trying to do the same thing as you and those who have done what you want to do. Use that positive peer pressure to overcome the fear. I believe you will start a side business that fits you perfectly and allows you to make your own money, be a role model and take care of your family! That's all I got for you. I love you and I'm out.