Psychologists have found that fear of public speaking ranks above fear of death for many people. However, for the success driven entrepreneur, fear of failure takes a back seat to nothing. It doesn’t have to be this way. If you understand failure, you will understand that it should not be feared.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once stated: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself,” in connection with meeting the challenges of the Great Depression. For the Depression weary, there were only two options: press on and do what was necessary to survive, or die. They were in a do or die situation, and they choose to “do.”
In a since, you have the same choices in your business. Get with it and make something happen, or fail. Excuses don’t count.Failure is not defined as a temporary setback, but as the decision to permanently quit trying. Giving up is failure. And if you are truly determined to succeed, you know that you cannot fail, because you have no intention of quitting.
You cannot fail, because
you choose not to quit.
You will face rejection any time you step out the door of your house and engage in human activity. Rejection is a fact of life, and depending upon how you respond to it, it can either be beneficial or hurtful. What happens when you ask a person to attend an opportunity meeting and they reject you?
Do the rejection police knock on your door in the middle of the night, break your legs, and then confiscate your firstborn child? Perhaps in your neighborhood they do, but for
most of us, no physical harm will result in your being rejected. But, with the wrong attitude, rejection can be nearly as devastating as a visit from the rejection police.
Fear of rejection is a lousy excuse.
Face it, if you’re going to succeed in business, you’re going to face rejection.
The secret to perceiving rejection as beneficial is in your attitude. For example: if you could make a $100 commission off the sale of a product, and on average it took ten telephone calls to make a sell, each phone call would be worth ten dollars to you, rejections included. Yes, think of your rejections as profit centers.
The more rejections you incur, the closer you will get to an acceptance. Think of a person in your life who has never experienced rejection. Is it possible to be successful and not have experienced rejection?
Rejection hurts because we take it personal. But when a person says no to your opportunity, they are not necessarily rejecting you. Chances are, they are rejecting themselves. Think about it. Why would a person say “no” to an opportunity for success?
• They don’t understand the opportunity clearly, but won’t ask for clarification.
• They don’t understand failure, and therefore fear it.
• They are embarrassed to try something that doesn’t fit their image of business.
• They are afraid to try something they are not totally confident of succeeding in.
• They don’t want to start something on their own. They want somebody, like Mom or Dad, to give it to them.
The list could go on and on. Meanwhile, you’re sitting there groaning about having been “rejected” once again. Get over it. Rejection is a fact of life, and as you’ve seen from the above illustration, it frequently has nothing to do with you.
Rejection
is a fact of life. Get used to it.
The world can be a cruel place, and whenever you attempt to build something, there will always be those who want to tear it down. Your network marketing dreams are also subject to this inescapable cynicism. The best you can do is hang on, and continue to build your business in the face of ridicule. If you are wounded by the words of a prospect, take refuge with your fellow marketers, gather your strength, then forge back into the fray. With each small success your anti-cynicism armor will thicken, and the resolve of your critics will weaken.
Critics will always be there. The question is,
do you have the strength to outlast them?
In the process of completing my college degree I had to take and pass a college algebra class. I was terrible in algebra. On three separate occasions I registered for an algebra class, only to withdraw before the course ended because I could foresee the failing grade coming my way. Finally, my academic counselor told me I had to pass algebra or drop from the program.
The next term I held back my desire to register for several classes, and instead took one class: algebra. Throughout that term I worked on one subject. I dedicated myself to completing the class with a passing grade. I squeezed by with a low A. The lesson I learned from this experience is that when I focused my mind on one thing, virtually nothing was impossible.
If you focused on nothing but making a sale of one item to one customer this month, could you do it?If you set the goal to find and recruit one distributor for your downline, could you do it?
The Apostle Paul was famous for his focus. He stated, “this one thing I do.” Meaning he was driven to spread the word of his savior. He would not allow himself to be distracted. How many irons do you have in the fire right now?
What could you put on hold for the moment to focus on one key objective?Consider the analogy of the laser beam. A light, spread out can brighten a room, but one it is focused into a small beam, it can cut through steel. We can do the same with our goals. Focus your energy on one thing. See it through, and you will achieve success in that area.