A founder’s guide to managing failure
When we set out to build a project that must survive and thrive, we start living in a world where the statistical likelihood is that it won’t. The sobering truth is that 95% of businesses don’t make it past the five-year mark.
No matter how much we want it or believe in ourselves, our psyche — deep down or just under the surface — will always coexist with the possibility of failure. The more we stake on the outcome, the more this possibility scares us, creating a personal relationship with our fear of failure.
As an entrepreneur whose venture survived beyond the five-year threshold, I know this fear personally.
One study identifies fear of failure as one of the main psychological barriers to entrepreneurship. This fear can undermine motivation and limit our ability to identify and seize opportunities. Another study confirms that fear of failure makes people avoid risk, which in turn stifles innovation and business growth.
What’s especially critical for founders is that fear of failure can drive us into isolation, avoiding conversations or consultations with others. This lack of social support increases stress and reduces the chances of success. Support from colleagues, partners, and mentors is vital in entrepreneurship, and its absence can be a critical factor.
However, every complex emotion can be transformed into a resource if we skillfully manage it and study how it truly affects our lives. This includes the fear that can knock us off our feet, like it did to a friend of mine when the ambitious project he had built on investor funding came to an abrupt end.
My relationship with this fear didn’t end once I began my project full-time. I undoubtedly believed in success and pursued it with all my energy, at times working far beyond my limits. Yet even as I achieved one milestone, I felt joy but knew it guaranteed nothing. The fear would return, sometimes motivating me to work harder, and sometimes clouding my vision, preventing me from seeing the bigger picture and finding creative solutions.
Eventually, I learned to live with it, but five years later, after deep introspection, I realized it had significantly affected my focus. I believe that successful projects are a mix of various factors — from economic conditions to a founder’s ability to build a team and make the right decisions. Ultimately, however, without understanding the true value and benefit of the project for the user, and being able to create that value, no project can be viable in the long run. The fear of failure forces the founder to focus on making sales at any cost, diverting attention away from the customer, their needs, and the mission that drives the project — the only thing that can carry us through the long, challenging entrepreneurial journey. This misalignment can strip a business of its essence and lead to burnout, as the founder forces themselves to do what they neither want nor believe in, creating instability for the project.
Skillful management of the fear of failure starts with acknowledging it. If something scares us to the point we can’t see it and begin to suppress it, we lose the ability to manage and transform it into something beneficial. In our reflections, meditations, and therapeutic work, we must check ourselves for this fear and create a worldview where the possibility of failure is normal and something we can work with, rather than something to avoid at all costs.
By holding the fear in our awareness and even feeling it in our bodies, we can begin to transform it into a resource. Studies show that fear isn’t just detrimental to projects; it can be helpful too — prompting entrepreneurs to plan better, prepare for challenges, and carefully analyze risks. This leads to more caution and focus, which helps reduce the likelihood of mistakes. By acknowledging fear’s constructive contribution and expressing gratitude for it, we can balance its influence, choosing the part that is helpful while letting go of the part that stifles creativity and risk-taking.
Awareness and gratitude for our fear can be a practice of noble warriors. It teaches us to avoid the negative impact of fear while leaning on it when it serves us.
Ultimately, I realized that my own mismanagement of fear caused me to lose focus and led me toward a product I wasn’t truly passionate about. This led to burnout and resistance. Only after fully embracing the possibility of my project’s “death” could I let go of the fear and pursue products that truly mattered to me. Throughout it all, fear always tried to help — I feel grateful for it, though its abilities and methods are rather limited.
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