Tag: failure
Why You Are Afraid of Being a Successful Marketer
You may be involved in creating marketing strategies, marketing services, marketing consulting, but you suck. Maybe you don’t suck but you're scared of sucking, you fear underperforming as a small or large business marketer and that's perfectly fine.
Heights, darkness, bugs, SOCIALISING are amongst the most common fears or phobias people have but you know what is missing from that list of common fears? The fear of FAILING! Why aren’t there more marketing agencies, more millionaire marketers, why aren’t you a good marketer? Because you and many people, fear making mistakes, you fear making a lackluster marketing strategy, you fear miscommunicating yourself during your marketing consultations/marketing workshops, you fear failing.
My biggest leadership fail
On January 7 this year, I opened by diary for the first time in 2020. It was a remarkable moment, one that was so full of promise. Like any entrepreneur on the rise (or at least I thought that was to be the case), I had written down the goals I had set out for the year ahead in my diary in December.
What makes some entrepreneurs more successful than others
But this isn't exactly the case. In fact, the most successful people I know are not in fact flashy or anything alike. They still live in the house they bought when they first started out, don't update their cars yearly, and often have a holiday house or choose experience holidays over the swanky likes of St Barts and St Tropez.
If you truly want to be successful, then you have to look a little deeper at the people you aspire to be like. Those telling you how rich and successful they are, are more often not. In fact, those keynote speakers that spruik their monetary achievements, often are making more money out of speaking than out of what they proclaim made them rich and successful.
Successful people never quit
We were all meant to be doing the things we are doing, for the time we are doing it. That is a fact.
Set your company up to succeed by failing first
What are you afraid of? Success? Failure? Judgement?
What holds entrepreneurs back from succeeding?
After 17 years in business, I have created my dream job. I work for no-one. I answer to no-one. I go to work everyday with enthusiasm because I don't have to go to work - I just love every single bit about my job.
What's holding you back and how to fix it immediately
We control our own destiny and deep down, every person, even the one's that blame others for their 'lot in life', know that if you are not achieving something, then it's no-one's fault but your own.
They are harsh words. You may say that you wanted to be rich, but were never given the opportunity but we have heard lots of stories of people growing up dirt poor who become squillionaires or elite sportspeople - so that alone is no excuse.
We all want something. Many of use strive to achieve it and put the right actions in place to make it happen. When failure crosses our path, we get back up and dust ourselves off, then try again, perhaps in a different way.
But some people fail and then become too afraid to get back up. Worse still, some people don't even try, because they are so afraid of failure. For what? Someone is going to laugh at you? Someone is going to think you are not as good as you want them to think? Your ego will be bruised? These things are as silly as they sound. Toughen up and start putting into action the things you need to, to achieve your goals.
There is simply no excuse for not trying and certainly no excuse to blame others, your circumstances or anything else on why you can't do what you really want to do. Anything is possible, you just have to believe.
In my experience, people are often held back (including myself at times) by:
1. Procrastination:
2. Commitment phobic:
Another great reason why you can't achieve what you set out to achieve. You are phobic of making a commitment to achieving it. You want to travel the world, but you find every reason not to book your flight. You want to buy a house, but you find every reason not to put down that deposit. This usually follows you everywhere in life. Work on it. Don't let this be your reason for not succeeding.
3. You are not flexible:
You will only do it your way. You don't listen to others, or take advice and mostly you don't listen to your gut instinct. For instance, you want to be a newsreader, but you live in Sydney, and there is too much competition for roles as journalists. So move to a country town with a small television station so you can learn the ropes and get noticed. But no, you can't move - right? Wrong. If you really want it bad enough, you will do it.
4. You expect instant results:
Let's face it. You most probably will fail the first time. So don't pack up your bags when this happens and head home. Get back up, and try it again. You start a business and it doesn't make you a millionaire over night. Do you close the doors? Or do you keep working at it? The only thing in life that gives you instant results is chocolate and alcohol.
5. The right time never comes:
You are waiting for the right time. When you have had kids, or when you have paid off your mortgage or better still, after Christmas or when the market changes. This is your mind playing delay tactics and winning.
6. You compare yourself to others:
There will always be someone prettier (or better looking) than yourself. There will always be someone smarter or more successful than yourself. Get use to it. Unless you are Bill Gates, which I take it your not if you are reading this blog, there is always going to be someone who makes it look easier than it is, or who will be better than you in some way. Play by your own rules. Own you! Never compare yourself to someone else, but by all means learn from others.
Should you watch while your team fails?
Normally, I would be the first to say "that won't work". However, this wasn't the time. It was a small project and it wouldn't harm anyone by being a failure. Instead, it would be a lesson learned and I was willing to pay the price.
Failure. Are we all a bunch of hypocrites?
I fail at so many things; staying true to walking my dog each day, keeping 100% of employees engaged all the time, communicating the value proposition of our business when we have severely overserviced a client and it has then become an expectation, keeping a timesheet, and letting go.
My biggest failure