The NEWBS guide to getting over your business fear.

First, I want to say that I am by no means out there "killing it". I am in the same boat as every new IMer. I know this business stuff is what I love doing, but I still haven't decided my main focus (online, offline, etc). I am full of hope and excitement at the prospect of being able to provide for my family but I am crippled by this lingering fear of failure (or even success at times).

What is that black cloud? Well it depends on who you ask and what their outlook on life is. Some will say it's healthy, that it shows that you are doing something outside of your safety zone and should be welcomed. Others will go the scientific route and say it is an evolutionary feature of our brains that warn us of impending danger. That it's real function is to keep us from doing something dumb. And the last group (probably your grandparents) will tell you to stop being a child and get out there.

For the sake of this post the explanation is irrelevant. It is there, now how do we deal with it? I will digress for a second to say this, I have been skydiving twice and the fear I feel right before the jump is less than when I am about to walk into a meeting with a business owner. Isn't that a bit ridiculous? A meeting with someone who wants my services scares me more than falling 10,000 feet from an airplane which will cause me to fall at 150 MPH.

Both times I went I created a mental strategy to get over the fear. The first time I knew if I could muster up 1 second of bravery, that it would happen too fast for me to be able to stop. This worked so well that I had to go back and try it again. In just these two moments (which lasted a total of 90 seconds max) I found a real love. Something I want to do for as long as I can even if it never makes me a dollar.

I came up with a couple things that work for me, and I want to share them with any fellow Newbs that are facing the same problem getting started. Also, I know there a few of you WF vets that will read this post, please chime in and give any real advice that you don't mind parting with for free. Now, let us begin.

1. Create a boss

This is tip I made up myself after reading that part of the problem of this fear is related to being unfamiliar with working without having someone over you. Let's look at that for a second. Since you got your first job working for next to nothing (mine was as a busboy) you have had someone over you making all of your work related decisions. There is a real comfort in having that but if you want to be your own boss then you can't have a boss right? Well, yes and no. How do we get the comfort of having a boss without someone telling you what to do?

You create one. They exist in no place but your mind. Let me explain, what I did was picked someone that I would never want to disappoint and respected and put them into that "boss" position and just pretended I worked for them. Simple and insane right? Yup, but it worked. I picked my late grandfather William Mosley. He is the person who put the love of business and customer interaction into my heart. So who better to be my boss than that man? This will give you someone to be accountable to and lift the burden of some of your decisions off yourself so you do not find reasons to delay.

2. If you have a safety net, remove it

We all have a comfort zone. If you stay in that, never expect to grow. Those are the words of my "boss" when I asked why he opened up a shop that sold jacuzzis when he had never had any dealings or background with them. He had sold microscopes for the last 15 years and a spa shop seemed like a very weird next step, but he saw a need and grew a very successful business.

Why I brought that up is to show what you can do if you put yourself into a situation where you have to fight. Well, my grandpa up and sold a very lucrative microscope repair and resale business and jumped right into his spa shop. He created a must succeed scenario and did what he must to keep himself afloat.

Now, I do not suggest you do anything foolish. The reason he done that is he had enough money to survive off of for the rest of his life but wanted the trill of his business and wanted to grow it himself. What you can do is remove the rope that has you tied to the dock. Are you making enough money part time online to support yourself right now? Maybe it is time to quit your day job then. We have an amazing capacity to rise to the occasion and if you have to make your savings account inaccessible by you alone, then do it. What ever is keeping you in the safety of the harbor is also keeping you from landing the big fish.

3. You need to be held accountable

Part of my boss idea was for this reason, to have someone to disappoint if I didn't go out and do some work. That may not be enough for you. Find someone to hound you about keeping on track, make a bet too big to lose, do something that will motivate you beyond what you can do for yourself.

There are also Mastermind groups that can help you accomplish this. If you do not know what this is, Google it. This is something I am considering for myself.

4. Decide what your "endgame" is

Starting with the end in mind is the best way to get past your fears. If you do not know where you are going, how will you know how to get there?

I will tell you what I want for my life and business so you can see the types of goals you should have: I want to have less wealth in money but more in time. I want to be able to travel on a whim, go skydiving for a week straight, and be able to accept a bet from a snobby trust fund baby to see who can climb Mt. McKinley first. I want to be able to spend 5 or 6 hours a day with my kids and show them the world as they grow up. I want to be able to donate substantial amounts of money to my charity of choice, St. Jude Children's Hospital.

Keep this in mind, the bigger, the better. If you set your goals too low they are easy to miss. Go big or go home. This isn't about being pompous and thinking you can do as you wish. You need the goals to see what steps you have to take to accomplish them.

What I will need is the ability to work remotely. I get that by my travel plans. I will also need a support staff to help automate some of my time consuming tasks so I can be free to move about. I can accomplish that with the help of Virtual Assistants. So, I know I will need to create a business that allows me to do those things. If you have not read "4 Hour Work Week" By Tim Ferris, do yourself a huge favor, and go get it now. Easily one of my favorite books of all time.

-My last advice-

Take the time to let the next couple sentences soak in and try to remove the common feeling that you already know how you should feel when reading them and allow them to strike a nerve, even to offend you. Stop screwing around. Yea, when you decide to "research" SEO work when you haven't even built your first site you are screwing around. If you insist that this business stuff is "too hard" then shut up and go get a 9-5. This is something all of us can do. The minute you allow the process to work, it will. Now, go out there and do something for yourself. You will appreciate it.