At lunch today we talked about what was holding us back from success. Sitting amongst a group of very successful women I found it hard to fathom that fear of success rates amongst them. When an opportunity sounds too good to be true we can self sabotage.
Both fear of success and fear of failure can both be as debilitating as each other. While it’s far easier to be a failure – or to lay under the precipices of ‘normal’ – being wildly successful is a daunting task.
Amongst others #Hugh Macleod suggests that success is more complex than failure. It’s harder to achieve and harder to accept.
While we may have succeeded in so many other parts of our lives – in business our fear of success can mean entering into uncomfortable places. Success can bring with it scrutiny and criticism. Unpredictable pressures and demands.
Small business owners in the arts can have a more complicated relationship with success. The fear of crossing over some invisible line of artistic merit can prevent their growth.
In this state the ‘what if’s…’ can creep in and can hold us back – sometimes until it is too late. Fear of success can be mean procrastination. I’ll just wait until I, until they …
Success is a nice problem to have and if you’ve ever ridden alongside failure you will have more than enough creativity to deal with it.
Embrace the change and the opportunities that come with it. If you have a great product or service (I know you do), then when you put yourself in front of the right customers they will help you succeed. And there will be no looking back.
