| Fear of public failure. I had a startup for a while and this was something I battled with a lot. It's one thing to have a little side project that no one knows about and that you can just pass off as something for your "off-time". When you start a company though, you make a public statement to the world in some form or fashion that you are building this thing and you believe in it's ability to make money. And not just that - you believe that it can and will be successful. People tend to start judging you right then and there. It's pretty difficult at times to handle that on its own - and then the doubts come, and the fears of how it will reflect on you if you fail. "What if some technical challenge is too much and I can't get it to work?" "What if I release it too early/ and no one uses/pays for it?" "What if I never get past that first user or first 10 users?" "What if people see me fail at this and then feel justified in thinking that I'm an idiot?" They all boil down to fear of failure. The biggest thing to realize is that failure is the path to success and to reframe how you view it. Failure is the beginning, not the end. The end is defeat - when you decide not to stand back up again. And the people who are judging you? They are generally just insecure. I heard a quote once (not sure where it comes from) that says something to the effect of how the greatest treason a crab can commit is attempting to escape the bucket. If you watch them in a bucket, when one tries to get out, the others will pull them back down. That's how a lot of people behave as well - they will judge you for your failure and try to bring you back down to their level. Just realize what is happening, and reframe failure as a growth opportunity. You can't really lose then - if you fail, you've grown and learned something, and if you don't, well... Then congratulations, you've "won", so to speak. It comes down to this: you will learn a lot from building a company, and those hard-earned lessons will only help you. Embrace failure and you are 10 steps ahead of those who run from it, because you're stepping into the arena and they're not. |