Venturing into the world of the entrepreneur implies taking on the challenge of moving a different, innovative and even unknown path, in which we must go through several stages, some very satisfactory and others more difficult.
Without a doubt, the greatest test to be an entrepreneur is in our ability to self-analyze to transform ourselves and find our best version at the level of knowledge, skills, emotions, mentality, etc., in order to reflect this process in extraordinary results that mark success of our projects and businesses.
That’s why, from this release, we will start a series of articles in which we will see the main paradigms that prevent an entrepreneur from progressing.
Let’s start by speaking a common language, defining what a paradigm is.
A paradigm is a set of beliefs that establish the limits of our mind and tell us how to behave within those parameters in various situations and circumstances.
It seems somewhat complex to understand at first glance, right? We will try to clarify it with the following example:
In our culture, the concept that using cutlery and eating with small bites is polite. When we see someone eating with their hands and filling their mouth with large pieces of food, it will not fit into that paradigm and we immediately dismiss it as “well-mannered by eating”. Now, with this in mind you can ask yourself,
What does this have to do with being an entrepreneur?
You will see that strong beliefs (paradigms) that prevent us from progressing as entrepreneurs, because they limit our capabilities and potential to bring to reality what we visualize.
One of those paradigms that is a strong obstacle in our life is… Fear.
Fear paralyzes us, prevents us from taking action, makes a very good idea becomes unrealizable, fear makes us find all the possible excuses and pretexts to avoid carrying out something at all costs.
This paradigm not only affects the development of the entrepreneur, but also our social and human coexistence … how many people have missed the opportunity to make a great trip to a distant place for fear of getting on a plane? How many children in class avoid raising their hands to answer a question their teacher asks, although they may know the answer, simply only out of fear? The truth is that they are not few.
Many people with very good ideas are deprived of being a successful entrepreneur not so much because they lack money, but because they have plenty of fear.
On many occasions we tend to worry about things that have not yet happened and that most likely will never happen. It is proven that 90% of the negative things that we imagine do not happen, so it is a waste of energy to focus on these fears.
Don’t Let Paradigms Stop Your Progress as an Entrepreneur
However, fortunately there are strategies, two in particular, that allow to counteract the fear, which we expose below.
One of them is to ask: what is the worst that can happen? If we are going to invest a certain amount of money in a new business, what would happen if we lose it? Most of the time nothing serious happens, nothing more than the uneasiness of not having achieved success, but if you really are an entrepreneur, you should know that when it comes to business, you either win or you learn.
The second alternative is to fill yourselves with information, but useful information. Although fear will never disappear completely, knowing more about an investment opportunity will allow you to reduce the fear and fill us with more confidence at the time of starting your entrepreneurship.
These are only two alternatives that we offer and although they are not the only ones, they are powerfully productive if you use them systematically.
If fear has prevented you from taking off as an entrepreneur, we suggest that you reflect and make the decision to start, take that hard but definitive first step because obviously, fear does not give you money, if it did, we would all be millionaires.
Unfortunately, many people leave this world without exploiting their full potential, without knowing what they came to work for.
Keep in mind this phrase that we took from Juan Diego Gómez, because it has positively impacted us and it helps us with the topic of being a successful entrepreneur: “you have an appointment with greatness, don’t let fear prevent you from fulfilling it.”
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