The fear of failure

[Aurora Stano]

I've just finished reading The Millionaire Fastlane .
What an amazing book! It changed defenitely my mindset and my approch to the concept of money and buisness.

I'm a freelance illustrator (I know...I'm still a slowlaner), as many of them I have difficulties to sell my products and thanks to this book I understood what my problems were. The biggest one: I was selfish and I've never concerned enough to my clients.

This is like a Copernican revolution! Now I see that the illustrator is not in the centre of the universe, the clients are!
I know it's like the 'discovery of hot water' (an italian saying) but it wasn't so clear for me before.
Many artists are selfish, we think about what we love and not about the real clients's needs, at least speaking for my self.

At the moment I'm trying to change my point of view, trying to give values to others using my skills. Thinking about expanding my buisness in a fastlane way instead keep working as a slowlaner but I noticed few things that make me feel still insicure and not ready to do the big step.


1) The fear of failure
The fear of failure is the biggest problem for me. I'm aware that I need a process and the process involves failures but changing this approch it's really hard. I'm wondering how to be more self confident and less frightened. I recently listened to a podcast of a great italian entrepreneur Frank Merenda. He talked about the attitude to be an entrepreneur. According to him I don't have that kind of attitude because I'm too worry about investiments that could go wrong. Worrying about losing money. Have you ever had the same feeling? What do you think about it?

2) How should I start?
Now I know that I have to start from a problem and trying to find a solution. But actually where I have to start?
Market research to understand if my idea is good or not?
Study more books about buisness? How did you start and what did you read? (A part from The millionaire fatslane).
Do you think is a bad idea doing a trainship in a company to understand how it works and study to get skills I don't have at the moment?

3) Should I do not being involved in the work in my first phase?
One of the concept of the Millionaire fastlane is to not being involved in the work. One of my ideas is to still working by my own first to see if the project can start. That means obviously I'm involed in the work. Is that wrong? Maybe is a silly question but I prefer asking and looking stupid then being stuck.


4) Direct Marketing and blogging
Another point is the direct marketing and the blog. According to Frank Merenda the blog it's an important part of the buisness. I know nothing about it and I'm trying to study more. How do you start promoting your product? Did you do it on your own?

I'm sorry for the many questions I've asked and also for my English. (probably I've made mistakes everywhere) I do hope this thread can be useful also for others like me who know nothing about business but have a huge desire to learn.

 

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[ExCubeCommando]

Hello there!

I'm new to this forum, but one question I have, is your avatar one of your illustrations? If so, I think it's very good! You just started showing your work.

In my case, I was motivated by layoff to get started, so I just had to figure out how I needed to get my business marketed. I do business to business as a dental handpiece (dental drill) repair tech. Self employed fixing these instruments for dentists.

I designed my own flyers with Microsoft Publisher and Printshop, then used Vista Print to upload the design and have the flyers sent to me. I used a tri-fold style. PM me, I'll email you a copy if you want. I could have used an illustrator for some of my image ideas. I get most of my business by dropping these flyers off directly to dental offices, and all I need to do is tell the first person I see, I fix handpieces. No real selling involved. If they are interested, they start asking questions, or call. I also created my own website, which is very basic, but has all the information without the pain of slow loading pages.

Maybe you can just design your own flyers with your illustrations, and transfer the images to a flyer. Maybe get these out to people who design websites who would benefit from the illustrations. Make business cards with an illustration. Make a simple website with your illustrations and a bio.

When I got laid off and had unemployment coming in, I knew it wouldn't last, and that's what motivated me. On those crappy days when things didn't seem to go right, I just kept telling myself "failure is NOT an option", and kept going. Thinking of spending time again sitting in a cubical in a corporate office, this time for lower pay, was all the motivation I needed! After gaining confidence and experience, those crappy days are now a lot fewer and further in between!

Design some flyers and business cards, and get em' out there!

Hope that helps,

Mike

 

[SSimz]

Welcome to the forums Aurora,

Wish I could provide information that could help answer all your questions, but I'm pretty inexperienced on being an entrepreneur myself. I'm sure the more experienced members on the forum will help provide the answers your other questions. For me here are the things I did that changed my mindset about failure.

The Fear of Failure
1) Rather than letting the negative outcomes of failure hold you back, focus more on potential positive outcomes that could occur as a result of you taking that step forward. In your business related example:

Negative outcomes could that occur
Investments could go wrong
I could lose money

Positive Outcomes that could occur
Investments could successfully grow my business
My business provides customers with value that has been unmatched by competitors
The success of this business means: I can retire early, have more time to travel, not have to work for anyone, have financial freedom
etc

2) Understand that failure is a learning experience
In the Millionaire Fastlane when MJ was learning how to code his website, he mentioned that they were many times his code had errors in them. But through practice and learning from the mistakes he was able to build his website piece by piece.

If that example was a bit too technical. Think of something you're good at and look at all the potential challenges you overcame to get to where you are now (This doesn't have to be business related example).

 

[SteveO]

"The fear of failure" is failure already realized.

The fear is a more intense feeling than the feelings that come with any failure. Be willing to accept whatever happens and adjust if it is not what you want.

I have heard some people say that fear is a motivator. But I disagree with that. I want to be motivated by joy. I want to live my life without churn. I want to be at peace with myself regardless of my decisions.

All of us feel fear. But we don't need to.

 

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[Aurora Stano]

I'm new to this forum, but one question I have, is your avatar one of your illustrations? If so, I think it's very good! You just started showing your work.

Hi! Thanks for your kind reply.
Yes, that is one of my illustration. I'm glad that you think is good. I already have a website and business cards but probably I should work more on my business plan. A website is not enough. I have to build it in the right way to lead people buying my illustrations.

Untill now what I did is just drawing and improving my skills as illustrators, hoping one day someone will buy my products. Of course the quality of my work is one of the most important thing but if it's not followed by a clear plan I think I will never sell so much.
That is something I understood recently and I actually have to apply what I learned. Probably is just the time to act and not chat.

.

 

[Aurora Stano]

Positive Outcomes that could occur
Investments could successfully grow my business
My business provides customers with value that has been unmatched by competitors
The success of this business means: I can retire early, have more time to travel, not have to work for anyone, have financial freedom
etc

You're definitely right. Thanks for your comment.
I will try to be more positive and thinking in a different way as you wrote.

Understand that failure is a learning experience

I'll try to remember that phrase in the difficult moment. Thank you so much.

 

[Aurora Stano]

"The fear of failure" is failure already realized.

I should think of it when I'm afraid about something.
What you said it's not valid just for the business but in life in general.
That's probably the reason becuase I feel not satisfied... thanks for this comment.

I have heard some people say that fear is a motivator.

I heard it too. For someone it's the fuel to make an effort that bring them to a result but I don't think I'm that kind of person.
The fear just doesn't make me decide.

 

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