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I can never say that the last four years, following my venturing into formal business, was any easy. It was the test of a lifetime. There were times when I wished I had never left my employ, for the comfort and stability that it provided was far better than the strain that the business world presents.
It was a rollercoaster ride dealing with so much at the same time. Finance, human resources, administration and everything else, including marketing and customer care, needed my attention. Why would no one tell me this?
You have to find clients and finance the deals that you manage to clinch before the order expires. It is not something that you can learn from school or the workplace. No experience gained from formal employment can provide you with the skills necessary to run a business. Big or small.
Experienced businessmen will simply give you a tip here and there and will not, at any point, provide some step by step guidelines, and now I know why that is the case. One must learn by trial and error that way you have no one to blame should something go wrong.
I thank naivety for all the deals that I managed to strike when I stepped into the business world. I was oblivious to the risks that lurked in this new world and somewhat overconfident. I think the latter had to do with the confidence I had in my product and service, which brings me to the subject of this post.
It was only a couple of years later that I realized that my over-preparedness was a result of my fear of failure. The thought of failure alone made me cringe and I therefore ensured that every “t” was crossed and every “i” dotted before entering the boardroom. I also feared embarrassment. Fear everywhere.
You see, I tasted fear when, like with most ventures, a deal went awfully wrong and I started losing everything I had worked hard for. It was the experience of a lifetime. The ensuing losses were not a result of the deal that went wrong, but were a result of fear. I let it consume me and blinded me from the opportunities that still existed. I feared my losses would reduce me to bankruptcy. My fear was the primary cause of the losses.
It happened. What I feared came into being. I lost almost everything. At that point, my fear was gone for what I feared had come into being. I dusted myself off and went on to bring my business to a better position than it was previously at just before the losses started creeping in. Within a few weeks, I had regained my confidence and was dominating the boardrooms once again.
It then dawned on me that the cause of my losses could be harvested and used positively for one’s own advantage. It was from this point that whenever I felt a hint of fear I investigated it. I meditated on it until I found its source and rooted it out before it consumed me.
Fear has now become a valuable indicator in my businesses’ well being. It still gets me shaken a tad, but I am grateful when it does. It is more like a tyre pressure gauge, you will be glad it warned you of an imminent danger presented by a possible flat tyre. Often, you don’t even know it’s there.
Again, that is just me rambling on.
Wishing you a great holiday. Thanks for reading!
