Business is not a game. A business owner’s failure to cope with risk induced fear can eventually cause entrepreneurial paralysis and possibly even the death of the business. Then question then is, what do you do when you find yourself continuously in a position where fear forces you towards inaction and risk becomes a factor too difficult to handle?
Each week, millions of sports fans from around the world will tune in to watch their favorite body contact sport. For each televised game, the television cameras will show in intimate detail, a series of stress wrenched emotions painted over the faces of each player. We will see the beads of perspiration forming on their foreheads. We can almost feel their hearts pound in anticipation. Adrenal glands pumping faster, harder.. Palms sweaty. Nausea at the brink…
Gutsy…Bold…. Courageous. Three words that would be repeatedly used describe the actions and character of each combatant taking the field…
What a bunch of hooey!
As much as we marvel at each player’s resilience, their ability to withstand pressure and their undying competitive spirit, such qualities pale into insignificance when compared to pressures and risks handled everyday by the little guy trying to make a go of it in business.
Your average small business owner eats ten times that amount of stress and challenge at breakfast each day. Real risks appear for them at nearly every point that they turn. They risk failure and livelihoods of their families. They risk damage to their egos and their reputations. For this is real life.
Business is not a game. A business owner’s failure to cope with risk induced fear can eventually cause entrepreneurial paralysis and possibly even the death of the business.
Then question then is, what do you do when you find yourself continuously in a position where fear forces you towards inaction and risk becomes a factor too difficult to handle?
It may help to understand that the human body’s response to risk –whether it be excitement coupled with a rush of adrenaline, or fear partnered by stress and panic,– is purely a function of perception. To the part of our brain that controls risk-response, perception equals reality. In other words, we don’t actually need to be at risk to feel at risk.
The message then for each us, is that the risks that we face in business that we are so, so fearful of, are more often than not, more in our minds than in reality. Risk is only risk if you believe it to be so.
Back in 1991, fear and stress were my constant companions, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. . Interest rates were above 17 percent. I had a mortgage, an expectant wife, and I had recently lost my job.
My only choice it seemed was to "risk everything" and start my own practice, however the decision to do so increased my levels of anxiety and insecurity to the point where I found myself virtually locked in a position of mental paralysis.
That was until my father, gave me one of his best pieces of advice ever. To my father, the decision to go into my own business was one that was relatively risk free. As such, I had nothing to fear.
His advice to me went along the lines of, "We live in one of the richest countries on the planet... What’s the worst thing that can happen to you? Will you starve? Will you and your family be forced onto the streets? No. As far as I can tell, the worst thing that can happen is that you risk looking bad until you eventually work out a way as to how to become successful."
My father was right. It wasn’t the reality of my circumstances that were holding me back; rather it was my perception of the risks that were involved. In an instant, my whole outlook towards the future had changed. Sure risks were still present, but the fear associated in handling such risks had greatly dissipated.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it best when she said, "Believe in yourself. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. You must do that thing, you think you cannot do".
When it comes to risk, we each have the power to choose. We can fear risk and do everything in our power to avoid it, or we can embrace risk and learn to dance alongside its tune.
The best small business operators will tell you that it is their ability to accept, handle and thrive in risk based environments that makes their businesses great. Risk taking makes them push boundaries of comfort, which in turn enable them and our businesses to grow.
The greatest risk of all is to take no risk at all.
Article Resource is: http://www.buzzle.com/
