Facing Our Personal and Professional Fears

Of all the obstacles we encounter in business, fear is by far the greatest. The same fears that plague us in our personal lives creep into our professional lives. Building our ideal life includes our ideal work, and creating a healthy balance between them. How is this achieved? By getting out of our own damn way.

Fear of Failure 

We all make mistakes, every day. In life, in work. We miss our flights. We hire the wrong people. We forget to pay an invoice. Mistakes are not failures, and they are easily overcome. With every missed opportunity, there is an opportunity to learn and grow, to do better.

Businesses fold for many reasons. Your funding disappears, society changes course, a recession hits, competition edges you out… There are any number of outcomes that are beyond your control. Look at any major publisher. You know the names of their most successful books or magazines, but what about the several that didn’t make it? Look at any major retailer or restaurant. You see locations everywhere you go, but what about the several that didn’t survive in their marketplace? No company, great or small, is exempt from making mistakes. But the heads of Random House or Target don’t close their doors, because their successes always outweigh their setbacks.

Fear of Inadequacy 

Many people are paralyzed by their fears of inadequacy. They question themselves, their talents and abilities, their products and ideas. Am I knowledgeable enough? Am I experienced enough? Is my product or service good enough? Questions like these can cause us to sabotage ourselves, either by preventing us to follow our dream in the first place, or crippling us along the way.

Everything is figureoutable.

Knowledge and experience can be gained. Products and services can be improved. Look at any food manufacturer. How often do you see words like new and improved, now with more…? Nobody has it perfect out of the gate, and nobody expects you to. In fact, making improvements is one of the best excuses to sporadically re-approach your ideal market.

Fear of Taking Risks

It’s a psychological fact that people view loss to be twice as powerful as gain. We work hard for what we have, and often we settle in life and work, because it’s a gamble to go for our dreams. We think of entrepreneurs as big risk takers, but truthfully, entrepreneurs take calculated risks and accept them as part of doing good business, and of living a good life.

Taking a calculated risk means considering all the advantages and disadvantages. It means considering all possible outcomes, being aware some outcomes may not be ideal, and being prepared. We buy bicycle helmets not because we expect to fall, but because we might. Helmet or no helmet, we still ride.

Fear of Financial Insecurity 

Nothing is certain when starting or growing a business, and that constant state of flux promotes insecurity and uncertainty. Some people choose to save up and start small, some find investors or take out loans and go for it. There is no wrong way, but there’s a right way for you.

I had a full-time career when I decided to start my first company. I planned for months while I still had a steady paycheck. I made sure I had six months of living expenses on hand. I made sure I had multiple income streams established. This is how I fought my financial fear. Ten years later I still practice both, but they are no longer about financial insecurity, they are about financial freedom. Six months of living expenses on hand means I can take a break anytime I want to. Multiple income streams means I can drop anything that’s no longer working for me.

Fear of Criticism

Our relationships influence every choice we make, and we listen especially hard when we’re about to do something big. Because humans are sensitive creatures. We care if our friends and family like our significant other. We care if our coworkers and classmates like our new haircut or outfit. That won’t change. But we can choose whether or not they have the ability  to change our minds.

Generally speaking, we won’t lose someone we love because we made a choice they didn’t agree with. Sure, you’d like others to believe in you and support your goals and dreams. But what’s really important is that you believe in yourself and do what calls to you.

It’s okay to change your mind. About the work you’re doing. About the life you want. About the company you keep. About anything, anytime. You get one life, do it your way. No matter what anyone else thinks.

Fear of Growth and Success

It may seem silly to fear your own growth and success, but it’s a very real and very legitimate thing. Growth and success often means adding to staff, opening additional locations… It means things start to get complicated. You need more insurance. You pay more taxes. More paperwork. More everything. More becomes a frightening word rather than an exciting one.

We live in a time where it’s never been easier to make our mark on the world. We also have an unprecedented amount of resources and assistance available to us. Smart solutions exist. Again: 

Everything is figureoutable.

Fear isn’t something we can expect to eliminate, but it is something we are capable of acknowledging and moving beyond. For every fear we have, there are multiple ways to circumvent it with knowledge and confidence.



Erika L. Block is a professional writer, artist/designer and art director working exclusively with the art, film, publishing, music and fashion industries. She is the owner of Creative Studios and Factory Girl, and the co-founder of BRAVE. Find her on facebook: facebook.com/erikalblock

New Years: Second Installment

A week ago today, everyone was excited. The New Year was hours away. Many were busy contemplating the ride that 2015 had been and planning on kicking ass in 2016.

The countdown begins, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year, your life magically become open to all the possibilities, you believed you could change and that this year your resolution was going to work. Nothing was going to stop you, after all 2016 is going to be your year.

A week later around 25% of all resolutions have already been lost, forgotten or dropped by the side of the road. Whatever it is off the wagon, on the wagon, whatever you want to call it, it happened. By the end of January one third of all resolutions will be broken. Just eight percent of resolutions will make it to the New Year. The odds are not in your favor.

Once you break the resolution, it becomes an excuse. The first time you give up on it, it sucks, it hurts and you feel bad. Every time you break your resolution after that first time, it becomes easier and easier to do. The excuses build and the evidence builds, all the past mistakes come and drown you and make giving up so much easier. If I have already given up once, what is one more time, two more times and why even bother counting, I have already failed.

We focus on the next year, and it becomes easier and easier to push off decisions that could change our life. Next year I will make it happen, next year I will stick with it. At the same time, the fear of starting builds. All the times we have failed. We become afraid to move. We are paralyzed and we fail.

Your life does not begin with a New Year, it begins with a new mindset. Your life is not measured by your years it is measured in the moments. Every second is a new opportunity. This is not some fluffy make you feel good crap, it is the truth but it will only happen if you choose to believe it. That resolution that you gave up and that you lost, start it again today, who the hell cares when it ends? Get back up, get in the game and learn. Stop putting of your new life until next year.

Your life, new opportunities and freedom do not occur in a new year, or even over night, they occur the minute you decide to start thinking differently, be positive and believe in yourself.

Failure by Default

How many times have you thought about doing something only to tell yourself all the reasons why it could not possibly happen, where you would fail and all that could possibly go wrong? You dismiss the opportunity and try to forget all about it. I say try to forget because you never really forget about it, just give up on it, believing that never trying is better than failing. Unfortunately this line of thinking seems to be accepted in the world that we live in. We suffer from a symptom that I call “Failure by default”

The funny part of it all is the thing that we fear the most, FAILURE happens right away when we choose to not go after what we want or to go past our current boundaries because of the fear that we are not good enough, smart enough, rich enough or whatever you want to insert here to get what we want. We do not even give the idea a chance to have life, a chance to grow, we just dismiss it because we are afraid of being a little successful and then failing and instead we choose to fail with no success.

In the end, hard work, grit and dedication pay off and that is hard to believe when you are looking at a big idea that will change the world or at least change your life or something that willjust be different. It is easy to let the voices get to you that tell you not to take that chance, to not be adventurous and to be okay with not doing what you really want. In the end when we choose that path, we know what the results will be if you do not take the chance, it will never happen.

Sometimes we are blind to the fact that we are still failing if we never started on the journey. How can it possibly be a failure if we never tried it, it is a failure not because something went wrong but because you never gave it a chance, give a chance, work hard and see what happens.

Start taking those chances you fear and start believing that you have what it takes. In the end it begins with the choice on if you will try or not. If you try you can fail but if you do not try you will fail. It does not have to be a big move by any means; in fact you can start off small. Even the smallest choices can be hard to make but they are worth it.