It is an exciting time to be an entrepreneur. So many individuals who have been laid off in the last few years are turning lemons into lemonade, embracing their dreams to work for themselves and actually taking the steps to start their own business. Some of the most successful businesses of the last century began during a recession.
New entrepreneurs tend to dream big, as they should, but what happens when starting that business is not as easy as you anticipated? More than 600,000 new businesses around the nation are started every year, but more than 50 percent fail in the first year. For some entrepreneurs, those big dreams upon launching are quickly squashed by the long hours, the little or uneven income and sometimes negative feedback from family members or friends. This extra stress at the beginning can cause many to shift their once ambitious mindset to fear of failure, which can be a death sentence for a new entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship is no easy endeavor, but pledging to overcome any fears you have may make the difference in your success. Every new entrepreneur should understand seven principles to overcome fear that will help put you on the path to success:
1. Definiteness of Purpose- Discover what your purpose is and work each day in a passionate way to strengthen your mission. As you work through the daily struggles of new entrepreneurship, remember your original reasons to begin your business to achieve a strong purpose. By keeping the overall goal in mind, the little obstacles and stresses will be easy to get through.
2. Mastery Over Self- The person who is not a master of himself can never be a master of others. As a leader in a small business, it is important to practice self discipline in all walks of life and maintain a healthy emotional and mental state. This means staying away from habits that cause you to procrastinate or drift, like smoking or excessive drinking.
3. Learning from Adversity- Every new small business owner will be faced with adversity, especially in the beginning, but the trick is to learn and grow from those obstacles. Know the difference between temporary defeat and failure. Success usually is but one short step beyond the point of where one quits fighting.
4. Controlling Environmental Influences- Stay away from negative presences and interject positive, friendly and harmonious thoughts into your head. Not only align yourself with positive associations, partnerships and personal relationships, but seek out helpful advice from experts in your industry.
5. Time- Give permanency to positive, rather than negative-thought developing habits. Instead of spending time worrying or fearing failure, use that time to gain additional insight into your industry, meet new people and think through future goals.
6. Harmony- Act with definiteness of purpose to become the dominating influence in your own mental, spiritual and physical environment.
7. Caution- Think through your plan before you act.
By mastering these seven steps, you can “outwit the devil” and conquer fear to avoid one of the most common pitfalls of new entrepreneurs.
Sharon Lechter is the annotator for Hill’s “Outwitting the Devil,” which was released in June 2011 and is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble nationwide. This book outlines the factors that keep each of us from achieving our true purpose and offers seven principles to overcome fear and outwit the devil. Lechter is also the co-author of bestseller “Three Feet from Gold” and co-author of the international bestseller “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” For more information, visit www.outwittingthedevil.com.