Many people put off the dream of starting their own business because they are afraid to fail. The truth is, about half of all new businesses will fail in the first five years. But that also means that half will succeed. If you’re thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, consider the six points that I wrote about in an article called, Don’t Ever Start a Band: Six Things to Consider Before Becoming an Entrepreneur.
- Check your motivation
- Understand your skills and experience
- Have a solid plan
- Hire the right team
- Build a support network
- Prepare to strap in
Starting a business is difficult but not impossible and a fear of failure shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your dreams. You’re going to struggle and make mistakes but you’re going to learn what you’re capable of as well.
Founding a company has been one of the hardest but most rewarding experiences of my business career. Like many, I ignored the warnings, the statistics and the naysayers and dove head first into the start-up life and I love it.
Being an entrepreneur means getting comfortable with making mistakes but, as Theodore Roosevelt said in his famous Man in the Arena speech, it’s better than becoming one of those “cold and timid souls who neither knows victory nor defeat.”
What do you think? Have you put off pursuing a dream because of a fear of failure? What can you do to overcome that fear? Do we unnecessarily limit our potential by not being comfortable with making mistakes? How do we change that and prevent becoming “cold and timid souls?” Let me know in the comment section below.
Great post Jon. It is so true that fear holds us back but mistakes will help us grow. I was thinking for a long time of starting a leadership blog to share my experience and knowledge but the fear of failure held me back until I told myself “Just do it”.
Thanks Steven. Mistakes do help us grow and we need to move out of our comfort zone to start making mistakes. Glad you started! I’ll check it out!