As part of our Business Insights series, in this video, our CEO Graeme Carling, talks through his approach to managing the fear of failure in investing and decision making.
“Everybody’s got fear.” Graeme describes having a financial bank account and an emotional one.
“Most people worry about the financial side, but the most important is your emotional bank account. How will you cope with failure?
Everybody fails. The more you fail, the less fearful you are of it. You just go on to bigger challenges, but the fear never leaves you. Instead you’re able to control it and progress. So, when it comes to business, why start small? Really challenge yourself. The further away you get from your comfort zone, the better.
Most people want to operate within their comfort zone, that way if something goes wrong it’s all sensible. Meaning when it does go wrong it isn’t painful enough. There’s not a physiological reaction where you’ve really got a lesson out of it.”
His main piece of advice to budding entrepreneurs is to find a mentor. “Someone who has been hugely successful in the industry you want to get into – find out what they’ve done and implement it. Fail fast, and get it out of your way.”
Graeme believes if you want to succeed you need to stop putting it off. “Most people are just speaking about it, thinking about it. When the conditions are better – when they have more money or time. All rubbish, just procrastination. Get out and do it. Put the book down, stop going to the networking clubs and get out there and start today.”
