1. Fear of failure
This could be the fear quintessential entrepreneur: the fear of failing, to get ahead with the project, to err in the direction. “This failure manifests itself in many ways, for example, you do not like the product and/or service to our client; it is not possible to attract investors to participate in our ‘great idea’, not to attract professionals with the talent necessary to form a good team,” explains
Fernando Zavala Carvajal, founder of Intuuchina.
“In Spain, unlike what happens in the united States, it exposes the failure at all levels, whether you want to take as if you're a salaried worker,” he laments
David Boada, founder of Kaizen 2D, an online Marketing agency.
How to overcome it: “I tried to compensate by creating a business plan very complete, which included many possible scenarios and different contingency plans. I ended up assimilating that there is nothing without risk, and that rarely harvest a success without having been in the process some other failure or setback,” says Boada. Something that matches Zavala, “the fear of failure can be managed with the understanding that it is of small failures where the more you learn. Are a unique opportunity to reflect on and, from there, build a model that will succeed”.
2. Fear to fail the people who have trusted you
This is a fear also very widespread among entrepreneurs: the feeling of guilt at the possibility that if things don't go as you plan, you're going to endanger the safety or the savings of investors, customers or employees. To Iñaki Berenguer, CEO and co-founder of Coverwallet, a new insurance company that combines data, technology and design, she was “particularly concerned fail, and above all, to the people who have left stable jobs for joining me because behind there are also families”.
How to overcome it: “Have a co-founder to help you manage the emotional roller coaster of the entrepreneur,” says Berenguer. And if you don't have it, you try to desahogarte with other entrepreneurs known that can bring you different points of view. In any case, it is not that you ask that your employees are adults who have voluntarily decided to take the risk to enter in your company. This reflection helps to relativize the fear.
3. Afraid to risk the personal wealth
The fear of ruin, is inherent to undertake, but if that situation can affect your personal assets, the fear can become panic. If not just ask Ana April, creative Imprimaker, a company of the 3D printing of toys designed for children. “I am an entrepreneur and mother of a family (a single mother). The responsibility of the home lies whole on my shoulders. My main fear is not to create a profitable business with the resources I have (economic, mainly), getting to endeudarme in significant amounts, not being able to cope with the running costs of the home and this can affect the life of my daughter.”
How to overcome it: The philosophy of the method read it is very handy in these times. “I'm developing products and marketing campaigns thanks to my savings, and to aid and grants that I'm getting, and keeping a very strict control of all costs until you start to sell and get good metrics”.
4. Fear of the unknown
Call it insecurity, uncertainty... The aversion to risk is one of the brakes of mental's most powerful that exists in people and that, in addition, has a biological reason: in the brain are activated up to 24 areas most in a situation of uncertain outcome that in front of another clearly negative. “In my case, the fear that always appears when I start a project is the unknown. When you start a business venture you don't know what you're going to find, the bureaucratic problems, the financial... you Have a fear of unfamiliar situations that may appear, which may ensue, or if you're going to be able to respond to the unexpected,” explains Isaac Flores, director City Sightseeing Spain, multinational, leader of the city tours in scenic bus.
How to overcome it: “The fears are overcome by working each day more and more, and above all, looking for expert advice or partners who already had experience in the sector and that have made my journey has been more short and easy. Without forgetting the importance of surrounding yourself with a good team, to keep you motivated...,” says the head of City Sightseeing Spain.
5. Afraid to leave the comfort zone
Ben Askew-Renaut, co-founder and executive director of Packlink, a platform for comparison and recruitment of small package shipments for individuals and businesses, recognizes that “entrepreneurship is always an adventure, and, as such, carries risks. When we posed to boot with the project Packlink, I had a stable job in consulting, and three children. I was confident in our idea, but I don't know if by fear or by responsibility, I thought a lot in my children. I needed to believe that he was doing the right thing for me and especially for them”.
How to overcome it: “It could have more passion and confidence in an idea, that we knew powerful, that fear. Didn't want to stay with the doubt and remorse of not knowing if you would have been able to. In addition, my children are being an extra motivation to do well and achieve that Packlink to come forward,” he explains. A good strategy to overcome this fear is to face up to the challenge in terms of losses: analyzing the many things that I lose if I stay as I am.
