How to Overcome Fear to Find Success
How to Overcome Fear to Find Success
How to overcome fear to find success? This is the greatest hindrance to those who want to be successful in business, or simply life in general. There are plenty of excuses people can find when things don’t go right. The business world is full of failed endeavors and startup companies that just couldn’t find the right formula to become successful. One of the biggest obstacles people face in any kind of new endeavor or initiative is fear.
Overcoming fear can be extremely difficult. For some, getting over the initial fear of starting something prevents them from taking that first step. For others, the fear of failure can prevent them from taking the necessary risk often required to find success. Whatever the case, fear has a way of stopping many would-be success stories in their tracks.
1. EVERYONE FEELS FEAR
What can a person do to overcome fear and how does someone get past whatever it is that is holding him or her back? Finding the answers to these questions is important, otherwise fear will win, and that’s when dreams die.
In a recent interview with Y Combinator, Tesla founder Elon Musk, discussed the topic of fear and what role it has played in his life, as well as how to overcome it. Elon has accomplished a lot of things in his lifetime, and he is currently working on several other amazing and groundbreaking initiatives. His lists of success might lead many to believe he is fearless, especially given the fact that some of the things he’s involved in might still seem impossible. So, while many people likely believe that Elon has very little fear, given his track record, the fact is, he is not immune to fear.
2. IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO OVERCOME FEAR
In fact, when asked where he finds that strength to be fearless, Elon pointed out that he feels fear just as much as anyone else. “It’s not as though I just have the absence of fear. I feel it quite strongly. There are just times when something is important enough that you believe in it enough that you do it in-spite of fear.” He took it a step further by saying not feeling fear would be abnormal. “It’s like, people shouldn’t think, well, ‘I feel fear about this and therefore I shouldn’t do it.’ It’s normal to feel fear. Like, you’d have to have something mentally wrong with you if you don’t feel fear.”
3. ACCEPT THE POSSIBILITY OF FAILURE TO FIND SUCESS
What does Elon do to overcome the fears he feels? How does he beat it and find the drive to keep going? Some might find his answer a little surprising. “Actually, something that can be helpful is fatalism, to some degree. If you just accept the probabilities, then that diminishes fear.” He said that when he started SpaceX, he thought the odds of success were less than 10%, but he simply accepted the fact that he would more than likely just lose everything. However, he also thought that despite the risk there was a chance they could make some progress and move the ball forward and still do some good. “Same with Tesla. I thought the odds of a car company succeeding were extremely low.”
So…
- Realize and accept fear as normal, you are not alone.
- Focus on what’s important enough to you to get started, continue undaunted and overcome and/or get past your fears.
- Accept the worst outcome as possible and acceptable.
We hope you found this article about How to Overcome Fear and Find Success helpful. If you have questions or need expert tax or family office advice that’s refreshingly objective (we never sell investments), please contact us or visit our Family office page or our website at www.GROCO.com. Unfortunately, we no longer give advice to other tax professionals gratis.
To receive our free newsletter, contact us here.
Subscribe our YouTube Channel for more updates.
Considerately yours,
GROCO, GROCO Tax, GROCO Technology, GROCO Advisory Services, GROCO Consulting Services, GROCO Relationship Services, GROCO Consulting/Advisory Services, GROCO Family Office Wealth, and GROCO Family Office Services.
From Smart to Wise – Prasad Kaipa, CEO Coach and Advisor
About Prasad Kaipa Prasad has been an advisor and coach focusing on innovation and leadership since 1990 for about 120 C-level executives in Global Fortune 500 companies. Prasad’s unique competence is in helping his clients find their next significant step and take it. He found that unless he helps clients to examine their signature…
Wealth Management | Guy Lampard
About Guy Lampard Guy Lampard is a Partner at Aperio Group. Guy is a former Partner at Montgomery Securities and Senior Managing Director at Bank of America Securities—where he worked for 15 years. During his career at Montgomery and Banc of America, his responsibilities included Director of the International Department, Deputy Head of Institutional…
Insurance Factors – Dennis Wolfe, Healthcare Specialist
About Dennis Wolfe Dennis began his insurance career in 1976 and quickly gravitated to the rapidly developing small group benefits market. Almost immediately he wrote the benefit plan for a large interstate restaurant chain. from there he wrote the benefits for a Fortune 500 company. That followed with a total revamping of a major…
Disruptive Startups | Dr. John Garnier
About Dr. John Garnier John is an expert in Business Development, Corporate Division, Small Business Startups and is an International Expert in Silicon Carbide. Additionally he holds a PhD in Materials Science from Marquette University. He is the author of two books through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, technical papers (40+), patents 11+, and more…