Fear of the unknown

Doubt. Indecision. Like big hairy spiders, these two monsters can sap your resolve to move forward.

Doubt. Have you the very best business idea or model? Will it work? Is there something better? But I don't know enough? What do I know about computers or the Internet? I don't think I can do this. I can't do this!

If you believe you can't do something, you are absolutely right. You can't. Believe you can, and you will find a way. Stop looking for perfection. First of all, it doesn't exist. Strive for it, by all means. But don't wait to find it before you even start, or you will never get out of the starting blocks.

As I have said before, find something you will really like to do. Then just do it. You don't know how? Or you don't have all the answers? Do you really suppose any of us does? The old Nike slogan is one of my favorites: "Just do it!"

Little certainty

There is very little certainty in business, especially in the beginning. Starting a business is about sacrifice. The saying that there is no free lunch is very true; if you want the enormous rewards that business can bring, not just monetarily, but also in terms of personal satisfaction, you have to be prepared to invest your energy, perhaps some money, and most certainly your nerve.

Planning a business is one thing. Many people do that. They have great ideas, and then they don't follow through. You see, planning a business is a lot like parachute jumping. If you think about it, jumping out of a safe, warm aircraft trailing a piece of cloth attached to the end of some strings seems like total insanity.

But some people accept the challenge, a personal quest to overcome fear. They train, jump off towers and learn how to roll properly on landing, and then.... They still have to jump from the plane. Their heads tell them that thousands of people have done it before, safely.

They would be fools if they were not scared. (Some might think they were fools anyway!) But most jump, experience the exhilaration, and land safely. They can hardly wait to get back up and do it over again.

Help along the way

We would be fools not to be at least a little concerned about moving from the safe, nothing-risked business planning stage to the do or die action phase. That's the toes leaving the aircraft. Nothing solid to hang onto any more. Just a prayer that we have learned enough to land safely, or that there is help somewhere along the way.

But that's the point: there is always help along the way if we will only ask for it, or search for it.

Once you have chosen what you would like to do, and figured out what you need to do to reach your first goal, just do it! Refuse to allow indecision, procrastination or fear to get in the way. Set the first goal, not on becoming a millionaire, but on the first small step along the road you have chosen. Will you stumble? Of course you will. You stumbled when you took your first tottering step as an infant, didn't you?

Learn from the falls

But you survived it, and many more. You bruised your knees, cried, dried your tears, and were up and on the move again in no time. You will stumble in business, too, but the only way you will fail is if you just lie there and refuse to get back up. Falling teaches to walk upright. It's part of the process.

You are a unique person. Whether you realize it or not, you have skills or knowledge or abilities that other people want. They want to know what you know. Remember what Peter Drucker said: this is the age of education. Educate yourself, and then educate others in your special interest.

Find a need and set out to fill it. Find the hungry crowd. Serve your customers, and then over-deliver. Go beyond their expectations. Do this and you may find that your true business is nothing like you had expected when you set out on your journey. Start something and it is surprising what your customers may lead you into: ideas, perhaps, that are so obvious once they are brought to your attention, but you might not have thought of them in a million years.

Serve others, and the rewards come back tenfold. Just do it. You can if you believe it. You can if you believe in yourself.

You do, don't you?