If you’ve ever led a meeting or given a presentation, put yourself in my place for this story. What would you do as the meeting facilitator?
I was presenting to about 30 folks at a corporate retreat that combined a day of strategic planning with a day of confidence-building training. While teaching how to stop negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts, this lovely, 30-something, blond-haired, blue-eyed woman in a stunning, shiny black suit raised her hand. When I called on her, she stood up, put her hands on her hips, sighed deeply and loudly, and said, “TC, I don’t necessarily agree with you. I’ve been trying to lose weight for years. You know what I do? I stand naked in front of the mirror every day and say,
Fear of failure is one of the greatest blocks to success, in every aspect of life. Jeremy Bloom has been a top male model, three-time world champion freestyle skier, played three years of NFL football and built two successful entrepreneur companies during the great recession of 2008-2009. He has accomplished all this at the age of 29. In an interview I did for a book I am writing, Jeremy shared how he has in his words, “failed more than I have succeeded” and how he learned to overcome fear of failure.
Here’s a four minute video with Jeremy describing his unique perspective on failure and fear of failure. The test of the video is below.
Overcome fear of failure -a world champion’s and entrepreneur’s perspective. A conversation between Jeremy Bloom and Dr. TC North
JEREMY
Yes. I think every athlete that’s successful learns it. And it is not because they create it; they learn it out of necessity. They were competing at a time where a thought got in and attached, and they couldn’t let go and it messed them up. It certainly happened to me. And you create that out of necessity. That’s when, I mean, it is part of climbing that mountain. And you learn so much more about yourself in times of defeat, you know, when things… when you don’t prepare right or you don’t perform up to your own standards. And that is when you kind of lay things out and say, …
In my survey of small company CEOs (entrepreneurs), I found that 100 percent of CEOs wanted more courage and confidence in at least some situations, and 100 percent knew they had fears that were blocks to their success and their companies’ success.
They later admitted, when they saw this data, that it was a relief to realize that all of their colleagues also had fears and they weren’t alone.?? Does it help you to know that you aren’t alone and that highly successful CEOs experience fears as well? Fear of failure is one of the most common fears that blocks the success of business leaders, entrepreneurs and sales professionals. The fear of failure is a tricky fear though, because it has many faces — some obvious and some not. Here are seven of the faces of fear of failure and some ways to overcome fear of failure …
Fear is one of the most powerful human emotions; its grip is strong and pervasive. To maximize your success in business and selling, you must learn to control your fear of sales, or it controls you.
There are four kinds of sales in business: products, services, ideas and yourself. In the corporate world, you sell ideas up to your boss, down to your team and across to your peers. If you’re a CEO, you’re the lead on selling …
Replace the negative thought “I want to be liked” with “I want to be respected.” That would be the leadership advice from Don Shula, the Hall of Fame football coach of the Miami Dolphins — and the only professional football coach to coach a professional football team to an undefeated season.
Schula had a conversation with a reporter that went something like this:
Reporter: “I hear that you’re a ‘players’ coach.’” (Meaning he was well-liked by his players)
Coach Shula: “I couldn’t care less if my players like me; I want their respect, not their friendship.”
When is respect more important than being liked? It’s more important when …
