I came across an inspiring quote the other day whose author appears to be unknown: “The bird sitting on the branch is not fearful of the branch breaking, because she believes not in the strength of the branch, but in the strength of her own wings. Believe in yourself.” Read it again, let it sit with you for a bit….
Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, and it takes a whole lot of believing in yourself. You already know this I’m sure, but here is something you may not have heard before: most people who decide to start their own business don’t entirely believe in themselves, their ideas, or their business. Ever. They might not believe in any of it even 50% of the time in the beginning. Turns out, lacking confidence in yourself is not a startup deal breaker. Phew!
The bird trusts her wings because she is confident that no matter what breaks or falls apart in her world, her actions and reactions control her fate. She knows that her wings will see her through. She just believes. But we humans have to be taught to believe. Our confidence is learned and grows over time through daily trials and triumphs, increasing at a rate somewhat proportionate to the number of times we take a chance, risk something, or go outside our comfort zone. There are probably thousands of reasons that people lack confidence in themselves, but when it comes to starting a business I believe the number one reason people lack confidence is because they are afraid of failing or making mistakes. I am guilty of this myself, because the idea of failing feels really scary. How many of you play out this scenario in your mind when you think of trying something big and new: “What if I try this great new thing and it fails? Then everyone I know will think I’m the biggest loser ever and I’ll lose all my earthly possessions because I sank every dime I had into the idea and then my life will be over.” WOW. When you put it like that, it sounds terrifying and you shouldn’t do it! But seriously, failure of that magnitude would not happen overnight. Our minds have a tendency to immediately jump to the worst and final conclusion when we are contemplating something risky, which is illogical. There would need to be many, many other failures along the way leading up to the BIG ONE. So unless you are totally asleep at the wheel, the big one likely won’t happen. And how many people do you actually really know, in real life, that would even care if you failed? Your inner circle would support you and urge you to try again, and anyone who thought you were a fool for trying at all would never say it to your face anyway. See, you don't need to worry about other people judging you!
The successful people in the world have failed over and over again, because it's inevitable when you're making bold moves, and those failures actually boosted their confidence. How you ask? Failure led to their later successes exactly because they faced what was once their biggest fear and they found out it wasn’t that big of a deal. They fell on their face, they learned a lesson, and they got back up. Their confidence grew. And this can happen each time you venture into uncharted territory, so think of it like watering a plant: You fail, you grow. You fail, you grow.
In case you're wondering, I try things that fail all the time. And I still feel awful when it happens. But over the last two years I've learned to see the beauty in failure. It's where my greatest lessons have come from, and I want that for you too. I want you to get out there, try something outside your comfort zone and fail at it brilliantly. Then fix the screw-up and move on. I promise you’ll be glad you did, even if you don’t immediately realize the lessons at the moment the ship is sinking. Reflect later and see if you don't learn something and come out better in the end. If there is a ton of money on the line, then there isn’t much I can say about not being scared out of your mind. That’s real. But you only need to believe in yourself just enough to get out there on that limb. If it breaks, you know what to do.(believe in yourself, that’s what you do.) Good luck.