How To Overcome Fear of Failure in Entrepreneurship:

The greatest fear in entrepreneurship is the fear of failure. As an entrepreneur, creator, freelancer, startup CEO, or marketer, you are a project leader and work in progress towards your dreams and aspirations in life and business. So, you are bound to have a lot of fear in your brand-building process and journey.

However, you are not alone; we are all in that together as project managers, and work in progress for brand building is an ongoing process vulnerable to disruptive changes in the digital economy. Therefore, there is no need to fear trying to venture into the unknown and learn from your failure. Here is the key. There is no such thing as failure. It should be a work in progress in your entrepreneurial venture. So, never fear to fail. Otherwise, you will regret not having tried at all. 

Entrepreneurship in the Creative Economy.

In the digital economy, entrepreneurship is evolving into an independent creator business model and becoming more clearly identified as creative entrepreneurship based on your skills, talent, information, knowledge, and experience as the basis of the business model. The creatorpreneur is the master of their destiny in this new development.

So, there is no room for fear in the creator economy. But the power to explore opportunities and gaps with a creative and innovative mindset for value creation, provision, and delivery with a holistic and humane sense of responsibility in contributing to making the world a better place to live, learn, work, and do business.

Entrepreneurship Failure Rates

Research shows that of all entrepreneurship ventures, only 10 - 20 % survive their foundational years of 1 year to 5 years. However, you should not be scared to start or scale your business for sustainable success, especially in the present creative economy. Some statistical reports above are traditional business mentality based due to a lack of a brand-building mindset that embodies a creative and innovative approach to entrepreneurship.

And with that brief reflection on entrepreneurship in the creative digital economy, we hope it will set you up to be in the right mood to dig in and explore these characteristic elements that can help keep fear at bay in your brand-building process and journey and have the courage to act boldly on your business idea and develop it into a great idea. 

So, we are all in this together to transform the statistical failure rate narrative in entrepreneurship. Therefore, how best can you avoid being a failure in your entrepreneurial venture? Here is how to overcome the fear of failure in entrepreneurship.

Passion

Passion makes everything in life and business a breeze to do with the joy and celebration of your capabilities and skills to do it with ease and enjoyment of being of service through your passion and skills. In entrepreneurship, passion brings in that positive mindset that most people desperately need in moving your business idea to greater heights in positioning and performance in the market. 

So, you can never overlook the importance of starting your business venture with a deep passion for what you will offer and how you will deliver it in the market. Passion is the drive and desire most entrepreneurs feel when aroused by anything that might be a gap in the market. It is a visionary feeling that inspires a need to serve and be of service. 

That deep desire and need is what you can adopt as a vision to pursue relentlessly to create and build it into a brand that provides value and benefit to those whom you intend to serve and be of service in the market. So, there is nothing to fear in pursuing your passion and dreams.

Optimism

I have read and come across entrepreneurs, project managers, startup CEOs, and leaders who look downtrodden in their steps in brand building with a forever-stressed team with no joy in what they are doing and what they are supposed to do in the execution of their brand-building activities. That is toxic and does not promote a sense of work-life balance. Work-life balance means an unshakeable sense of self and your purpose in life and business that should make you optimistic in your entrepreneurial process and journey for solid brand building at the onset. That motivates sustainable success.

Believe in your project and idea to remain focused on your long-term objectives that boost productivity and performance in brand building. Being optimistic is empowering in overcoming challenges in entrepreneurship. You will have the power to transform challenges into stepping stones by envisioning a world of possibilities and exploring better ways of doing work and business in a new world that is forever changing.

 Being optimistic will limit fears of the unknown and cultivate the daring spirit of plunging into the unknown where most wealth creation opportunities lie. Remember, they say destiny starts with your first steps out of your comfort zone. And the best way to master it all is to cultivate an optimistic mindset for motivation to move on and pursue your entrepreneurial dreams.

Resilience

Entrepreneurship is always intimidating. It calls for a risk-taking mindset but should be calculated risk to avoid pitfalls due to the lack of perfect timing and strategizing that entrepreneurs have experienced in past decades when the internet was not yet as enabling as it is now. However, resilience in today’s world centers around the ability to adapt and change with agility due to constant disruptions from emerging technologies.

It means having the mental strength to recover from setbacks and challenges in your entrepreneurial ventures. It is about being smart enough to handle tough decisions when the tough get going and when algorithms hit you hard in your marketing strategies and having the drive to keep on pushing the needle for progress and not looking back but adapt, adopt, transition, and change for success in brand building.

Resilience will drive away any fears about where you are heading in your brand-building efforts and give you the momentum to explore new business lines that enhance your brand identity, positioning, and presence in the market. So, there is not much to fear but to remain focused on your goals and maintain a strong positive attitude in the face of any challenges, especially from disruptive emerging technologies like the generative AI tools that are flooding the digital marketing ecosystem.

Motivation

It is not easy to be an inventor, creator, or fonder. But your motivation will steer your desire and drive to make things happen the way you envision possibilities around you. Nothing can deter and stop you from entrepreneurship with a strong motivation to do what you imagine the world should be or the business landscape should operate. Motivation helps in driving away the fear of your long-term sweating to see results. Remember, they say it takes years to see and reap results.

That reminds me of Jack Ma when he said they had to go for about five years creating and building Alibaba without making any dime for their salaries or spoiling themselves. Scary and painful as it sounds, that is the reality in most entrepreneurial ventures that win in value to fulfill their purpose by quality value creation for solid brand building. Jack Ma had a strong motivation that empowered him and his team to withstand the heat of the long-term approach that boosts innovation, independence, and brand recognition in the marketplace. They never rushed to sell their business concept to angel investors and venture capitalists.

 Motivation drives dreams and clarifies your vision and mission for enthusiasm to withstand any challenges in entrepreneurship. So, there shouldn’t be any fear of failure in entrepreneurship. If you fail, you can pick up the pieces as learning tools for modifying and rising again, especially with a strong motivation behind it all. Be clear with your motivation and enjoy the journey and the process.

Confidence

That is a remedy for imposter syndrome. Maybe we can reflect a little and see how these interlink and support each other in pursuit of excellence in value creation for brand building in entrepreneurship. Confidence is a mixture of passion, optimism, resilience, and motivation. If you have all these and enhance them with your abilities and skills, the sky is the limit where you can easily break the glass ceiling in your entrepreneurial projects.

Confidence will captivate the daring spirit to explore and exploit uncharted territories for opportunities in your industry and niche market. No one in the present digital economy wants to deal with people who fear exploring and putting themselves out there, especially on the digital global market. That is where you should play boldly with your personal branding efforts. 

Remember, your brand is what you are in personal branding. Strange as it sounds, for brand identity, positioning, presence, influence, and expertise. It is the truth in brand building. Confidence in communication and clarity in what you are doing will enhance assurance in being confident with decision-making and executing any project in your entrepreneurial adventure with no fear of missing project instructions for efficiency in finishing and delivery. 

So, there shouldn’t be any fear of failure but confidence in value creation for efficient provision and delivery. If you need help, we are always happy and free to help in your entrepreneurial take-off journey and process towards solid brand-building. Especially starting with exploring our branding guide for personal branding here;