Photo by Tomas Tuma on Unsplash
Fear of failure prevents many Canadians from starting a business. The 2018 data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), an organization dedicated to the study of entrepreneurship, shows that among Canadians who say there are good opportunities for entrepreneurship, that 43 percent would be prevented from starting a business due to fear of failure.
We see it in our Career Management practice. Clients come to us trying to discern their best direction. They have a business plan that they have worked on with their business advisor. The business advisor is happy with the business planning to date. They are ready to move forward but they get stuck! They don’t know if they should take the plunge and leave their job to move forward with the business. Sometimes the idea of dabbling in the business while they remain in their job does not get traction either, even though it would be a less risky decision.
Its thoughts like: “this is going to fail,” ” I will never be successful,” “who would buy my products or service,” “there is too much competition,” “it will never work etc.” that override the logic of the business planning and often what the client deeply wants to do
They are stuck. While a number of authors offer suggestions to help submerge these thoughts or to reframe them, we find that this often just gives these kind of thoughts more power. Quick fixes don’t work well and even when we think they have worked, the thoughts often creep back in a different way.
We are working on a process to help people to develop a practice where they become increasingly skilled at getting unstuck. They act on their strengths in the direction of their values to achieve what is deeply matters to them. Read more
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Wayne Greenway is Senior Partner with Career Aviators, a Certified B Corporation® that directs all profit to innovative youth leadership initiatives in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is proud of a 93% success rate in helping helps clients from across Canada to find jobs in which they will excel, value highly and love to do. Helping clients to get unstuck and move forward in career and business decisions is a regular part of his work. He is becoming known as a thought leader in this area.