At least half of my clients encompass the fear of success. They are afraid of the expansion and growth of their company.
I know this is something I struggle with, and I have a mentor who’s helping me process my fear.
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I’d like to share some examples as to why people might fear success, along with tips and strategies that have helped me move past this fear.
My Lesson in Fear of Failure
One of my mentors, Michael Burt, talked about completing sales in a crisis economy. He’s good; definitely listen to my interview with him in a previous episode. I’ll share a lesson that he taught me that helped me get over the fear of success.
Reason number one might be a fear of not being able to manage money. Maybe you find money difficult to manage because of your history. Maybe you paid off much debt, and you really struggled with making enough money. You feel that if you get your hands on much money and become successful, you’re just going to repeat that negative money cycle.
One of my clients realized they were positioned to blow up and do really well in their business. However, they were also afraid of debt. They thought, “if we really go after it, we’re going to end up in that position again.”
But what they didn’t remind themselves of is that they got out of debt once, and they can do it again. Apparently, that was all they needed to know. They were off to the races and were making six figures shortly after.
Are You Afraid of Criticism and Judgement?
Another fear is the fear of criticism and judgment, particularly in the age of social media. I wake up to trolls on Twitter, but I don’t let them bother me. You have to know when to respond and when to let their comments go.
In the last episode, I talked about how humans do bizarre ass things. This is a part of life, and that you cannot stay small because of what other people say or do. If you do, you are letting them control you and your success as a person and a business owner.
Success Doesn’t Lead to More Problems
Many clients believe that success is going to lead to more problems. Let me tell you what helped me get out of this thought cycle.
The thought process usually sounds like this: “If we get bigger, the team will get bigger. There’ll be team problems. I got to learn how to manage a team. Oh, my God! If we get bigger and we have more clients, there’s going to be more problems.” I wouldn’t say your company has more problems, but you have a different set of problems, which’s the key difference here.
You’re going to have problems no matter what, whether you stay small or go big, you’re still going to have problems because they don’t go away. There is no utopia in business ownership and entrepreneurship. There isn’t a moment where you don’t have any issues.
If you stay small and you have problems, you’re actually more stressed. I experienced this situation for myself. I thought, ‘I’m just afraid that if this gets bigger, my team’s not going to want to stick around or we’re going to have more issues to deal with, or I don’t want to deal with people’s problems.’ Once I turned this around and moved forward, we started seeing really great results really fast because I got to that healthy level of not giving a fuck.
Stay Small = Stay Broke
If you stay small, you usually stay broke; then, you’re more stressed financially. Whereas if you go bigger, you’ve got money in the bank. Now money is one less thing you’re stressed about. As you get bigger and expand, you help more people. I have clients who clapped back at trolls on my behalf and helped with sales.
Because I’ve helped many people and have had a big impact, I’m not bothered by problems. Most of my focus and attention is on people I’m trying to help.
Think like Grant Cardone and his 10 X rule. In summary, he talks about how you should seek more problems. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Why the hell would I want to do that? I want to be a safe, secure, and comfortable business owner. I didn’t really understand this concept.
What he means by this is that problems are growth opportunities. Challenges are also growth opportunities. They are an opportunity for you to be better and do better, to reach your potential because that is where the growth really is. Growth comes from challenge and being uncomfortable. Remember, if you have bigger problems, you are growing, and you are expanding.