Everyone has fears and this is inevitable. It is part and parcel of life. However, what separates the winners from the masses who fail is the ability to acknowledge and face your fears and push through them. While conquering one’s deepest and darkest fears is not easy, it is definitely worth the effort. As an online marketer, there will be times when the skies seem gloomy and you wonder if it will all work out.
Financial insecurities, temporary setbacks and the usual challenges that life throws at you can be daunting. The majority of beginners will throw in the towel and quit the moment the going gets tough.They quit out of fear.
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Don’t let Fear hold YOU back
But you’re different because you know better. When it comes to fear, you really only have 2 choices.
1. Forget Everything And Run
Or
2. Face Everything And Rise
The choice is quite obvious. While the first one will be easy, it will leave you stranded in the muck and mire of mediocrity. Your dreams and goals will die from strangulation by fear. Choose the second option and you’ll push past your fear with grim determination.
When you come out on the other side, you’ll be emotionally stronger, mentally tougher and you’ll taste the fruits of success. There is no other way. You only have 2 options. Choose the second one. Everything you want is on the other side of fear.
Here we’ll look at 4 of the most common fears that plague many online marketers/entrepreneurs and how you can get past them.
1. Fear of the Unknown?
This is probably one of the biggest fears that entrepreneurs face. When you’re starting your own business, while you may have done your homework and prepared the best you can, there will ALWAYS be a certain degree of uncertainty. That’s just the way it is.
If you’re worried that you may not have the skills to create an online business, go ahead and do it anyway. Then learn as you go along. The best way to put an end to your fear of the unknown is to have faith in yourself, to believe in yourself and what you’re trying to achieve.
The next time you have doubts and fears, ask yourself why you’re feeling them. Look at them objectively, write them down and ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen.
From that list decide what you would do if any of those things did happen. Once out in the open with a plan to solve any problems that might arise, it is easier to move forward.
2. The Fear of Failure
This is another major fear that paralyse us. The fear of failure has stopped more people in their tracks than any other fear. Usually this fear is disguised in many different ways. If you worry that all your efforts will go to waste when your online efforts earn you no money, that’s a fear of failure. Most people say that they just ‘don’t want to waste their time on something that won’t work.’
The hard truth is that you’ll never know unless you try. It may take you 3 years to build an online business that’s making you six figures a year. But guess what? If you don’t try because you’re afraid to fail, the time is going to pass anyway.
That same 3 years will go by and chances are your life will probably be the same. Whereas if you had moved forward with your goals, you just might be in the six figure income category. A lot of people fear failure because it will make them look bad in front of their friends and family.
What Others Think of you doesn’t Matter
it’s what you think of yourself that counts. In fact, you may notice that when you try to better yourself and do things that others don’t do, your friends and family will probably be your hardest critics and they’ll call it ‘concern’ or ‘tough love. They will complain you no longer have much time for them and will constantly try to lure you away. They will say you are wasting your time as you have no results from your efforts. Another one will be that you are wasting money that could be used on something else. If all else fails then will come ridicule. A lot of this won’t be overt, more a steady trickle to wear you down and feed any doubts, without you realising.
It can make them feel threatened and the only way for them to feel better is to drag you down to their level so that the status quo can be maintained.
As before ask yourself what you fear about failing, write everything down and then brainstorm ways to get past them. Then remind yourself that there are no limits on what you can do, only those you place upon yourself.
3. The Fear That You Are Not Good Enough
This is a major fear for many people in all walks of life.
No one is good at everything but we tend to berate ourselves for things we cannot do rather than praising ourselves for those we do well.
- Albert Einstein once said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
Never give up on yourself. Usually when you’re trying to build an online business, there will be a learning curve that you’ll have to go through. This is inevitable. You will make mistakes. You will buy products that are rubbish. And you will waste time and money. This too is normal and can’t be avoided. However, if you quit while at this stage because you feel like you’re not good enough, you’ll never succeed.
You only get better
as you keep learning and progressing. Many beginners look at the expert marketers and entrepreneurs feeling intimidated. They believe that the other people are smarter, richer and better than them. Don’t compare yourself with others.
Everybody started off as a beginner. You don’t become successful overnight. There is a journey that you have to go through to build your business to where you want it to be. Yes there will be failures but each one is another way you have learn’t not to do something. The more you learn, the better you’ll get.
The more mistakes you make the better. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is a part of success. You are good enough. You always have been. You just need to believe it.
4. The Fear That You’re Too Old
This is another big one. You may have heard terms like ‘Article marketing is dead or ‘The good ol’ days are over’ ‘You’re too old to start a business’… But are these statements even true? Of course not. Building a business online is here to stay and every single day there are people reaching their income goals. It’s never too late to start and now is as good a time as any. Age is no barrier to dreams and happiness.
You’re never too old to set new goals or dream new dreams.
Henry Ford was 45 when he created the Model T car. Ray Croc, started MacDonald’s at the age of 52 and Colonel Sanders was 62 when he franchised KFC.
I was 54 when I started an online craft business and 63 when I looked for a new challenge and started leaning about affiliate marketing. I looked for many months to find a reputable company and narrowly avoided many scams doing so.
Perseverance paid off and 17 months later I have learnt and integrated an amazing amount of knowledge. I have built and run several websites and have a real passion for what I do. I can’t wait to get started every day and am always reluctant to stop because I love what I do so much. On Wealthy Affiliate where I ended up there are people in their 70’s and 80’s who are learning affiliate marketing and many in those age brackets who having been successfully doing it for years and still love it.
So as you can see, people have succeeded in life at all ages. You’re never too old. So cast this fear aside and pursue your dreams today.
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Questions and comments welcome.
Many things can be done if we put fear aside and one of these things is making progress which e all have in mind to achieve. Fear has been the one reason why many people have failed to make the move that will be useful to their life and that is really sad. I have learned a lot and I’m not going to let it hold me in any way.
I agree Justin, it is easy to let fear hold us back, much harder to face them and move forwards anyway.
Fear can prevent success because we don’t take the opportunities offered, as you said. Good to hear that you won’t let it hold you back.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Thanks for sharing, Linda. Many of the potential newbies are going to benefit after reading your post.
As always, I enjoy reading your article so very much. Such an in-depth and complete information is really invaluable to the internet community as a whole.
What you said is true and definitely right. We wish you every success and please write more articles. We are yearning to learn from your Great Wisdom.
You are welcome Rick. I hope it helps many people as that is the aim of my post. Many people have hidden fears without realising it or the way it stops them living the life they dream of.
Thank you for commenting.
I am currently reading a book called Mindset and it was talking about fear and the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The book said that people with a growth mindset will not be afraid of failure, that is what hold us back most of the time when we try something new.
The truth is that fear is a part of our survival mechanism but that only applies for when there was a tiger chasing us in the jungle. In currently society we are just purely afraid of making mistakes and also trying to avoid humiliation.
The fact is that when you fail many times you learn something from that. I used to have this saying when I did the B2B job, there would be a point in the day that I got so many Nos from the people or people were just so rude to me, I would say that I did not have enough Nos yet. When i have enough, all the Yeses will pouring right in. And you know what I made the record sale that day.
Thanks for sharing your story with us. I think life is all about learning. If we do not fail, we won’t learn. Great topic by the way.
I have not read that book, I will look out for it, thank you for the recommendation. The book is right. If you have a fixed or closed mindset you don’t tend to try anything new, just stick to what you know.
Fear of failure is a big hurdle its just learning to see it as a stepping stone rather than a wall. Every failure brings more knowledge of ways not to do something, which is something every successful business person learns.
Persistence is definitely key, just keep going regardless, just as you did with your Job.
Glad you enjoyed the blog post and found it helpful. Thank you for your comments.