How To Start a Business When You're Scared

Starting a new business is scary for just about anyone, but it's also one of the greatest and most exhilarating experiences ever. In today's video, I talk about how to manage your fear and start that company.

The Story You Tell Yourself

It's all about the story that you tell yourself. We fear change, and starting a new business creates a lot of change. Everything is up in the air from your income to your reputation. Facing this change will create one of two stories in your mind:

Story #1: What if I fail? I won't be able to support my family, and everyone will think I'm an idiot. They'll talk about me behind my back as the person that tried to fly, and instead crashed and burned. If this doesn't work, I could end up on the streets and I'll never get out the hole. I'll end up with loads of debt, and I'll probably end up with a heart attack. Add on to that the fact that my cat will leave me and my future children will hate my guts. Forget it. I'm not taking the chance.

Story #2: I believe in myself. Starting this business is my chance to create a life that I love. I'll be able to do the kind of work that fills me with passion. If it doesn't go as planned, then I'll pivot until I succeed. Nobody can take this away from me.

Do you see how the story influences your outcome? Even if the original business idea doesn't work out, story #2 keeps you focused until you achieve the desired result.

What's More Expensive: $10,000 or Missing Out

I firmly believe that I could start almost any business for $10,000 or less. With that money, we could at least get to proof of concept. You don't need millions to launch a company. The beautiful part about this is that anyone can come up with $10,000. If you lose that money, you can also recover from it.

So what's more expensive to you? Putting $10,000 out there as a belief in yourself and potentially losing it, or never doing anything and missing out on life. Imagine looking back on your 90th birthday knowing that you never took a chance on yourself. Always avoiding change and risk is the surest way to a life full of regrets.

Take the chance on yourself. Knowing that you jumped and gave it everything you had will change who you are at your core. You'll gain more self confidence, you'll surprise yourself by your resourcefulness, and you'll be living the life that you love.

Set Higher Standards

Think about the standards that you have for yourself. Quite often we think about the standards we have for other people: how they should act, how they should work, how they should spend their money, etc. But what about you? What are you no longer willing to accept in your own life? When you set a higher standard for yourself, you'll rise to each occasion in a magnificent way.

Burn The Boats

I referenced the concept of burning the boats in my video. If you've never heard the story before, here's a YouTube video that does a pretty good job of it.

Learning how to build a business when fear is coursing through your veins can be an interesting process. Know this, the greatest entrepreneurs in the world have been great decision makers. They make a decision, see how it goes, and then they pivot if things don't go as expected. On the other hand, the "not so successful" entrepreneurs try to plan every minute detail out before they act, and in so doing, waste weeks or months of time. They then get paralysis by analysis which only adds to their crippling fear.

Here's to you. I believe in you and your mission. It's time to burn the boats and take a chance on yourself.

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