Noting your greatest fears and moving forward anyway

Starting a new company is not for the faint of heart. As a matter of fact, many entrepreneurs including myself could probably tell you many stories that might shake you to your core if you are unfamiliar with the landscape. The risks are high, there are many unknowns, the demands can be crushing and the work endless. But people do it every day…and many do it again.

An interesting quote by Malcolm McLaren, below, speaks of being fearless of failure.

What matters is this: Being fearless of failure arms you to break the rules. In doing so, you may change the culture and just possibly, for a moment, change life itself.

-Malcolm McLaren

In business, our goal is to sell whatever product or service we feel the market will purchase, and do it enough to build a sustainable company. In doing so, there are several types of people:

• those that pave their own way – breaking the rules – in order to do something that is extraordinary
• those that scramble on top of the hard work of others in order to cash in on a market in demand, often with something cheaper or of inferior quality – or perhaps less often, with marginal improvements at an equal or slightly higher price.
• The last type of person is the one who simply follows the rules. They follow the market and sell more of what everyone else is selling with no real change or improvements, perhaps because it is safe, or perhaps because it is just the way things are done.

One might suggest that it is the first – the one that paves their own way that are the ones that understand the fear and proceed anyway. If we think about some of the most successful companies in the world, that is precisely what they did: Bill Gates decided that computers could be small enough to fit on peoples’ desks and that everyone could have one. Other companies scoffed at the idea; IBM thought it was a fad that would go away. Several years ago, someone began to talk about wearable tech – a relatively new industry that resulted in someone simply breaking the rules. Now we have products like sport watches, POV cameras, smart watches, headphones and other products.

Rule breakers.

So what rules will you break? What chances might you take to start a new movement, new industry or way of doing things? Will it be in your marketing or the way that you sell or in the people you hire? Will you embrace your fear and build something extraordinary?

We hope so.

Rick Meekins is the Managing Consultant at Aepiphanni, a Business Consultancy that provides Management Consulting, Implementation and Managed Services to business leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to improve or expand operations. We are the trusted advisor to those seeking forward-thinking operational and strategic solutions to help them plan for and navigate through the challenges of business growth.

If you are ready to discuss how Aepiphanni can help you with business strategy, overcoming challenges to growth or any number of business solutions for your business, whether a small, growing or established company, contact us directly or submit a request for a complimentary Coffee & a Consult to learn how we can help you CREATE | DESIGN | BUILD an Extraordinary company.