Fear is a terrible thing. It negatively affects your state of mind, and at a point even your physical well being. It is my considered opinion, that the biggest mistake anyone can make is to allow fear to control her, or influence her decision making.

In fact I believe your ability to master your fears is a crucial requirement for achievement of success in any area of endeavour.

I’m not perfect. Nobody is. But we must all strive for perfection to make the most of ourselves. And one key step you can take towards achieving that end is to develop mastery of your fears.
You can experience fear in different forms. Maybe you fear making mistakes, or criticism, or embarassment. Fear has many faces.

In business the ability to manage your fears can determine how well you progress.

You may have a perfect business plan, adequate capitalisation, qualified personnel and so on. But if you and/or those you work with let your fears dominate your thinking, and reasoning, you’re likely to end up with big problems.

Below I explain 3 different ways fear can limit your ability to succeed in business.

1. Intelligent Risk-taking For Progress

There’s alway an element of risk taking in business. Things may not always work according to your plans. Quite often you’ll have to adapt them to suit the realities that you encounter.

If you’re fearful however, you’ll delay taking action in a timely manner. And that could affect your business progress negatively.

2. Negotiating Profitably With Clients/Customers

When business is good and you feel you have a lot of money in the bank, the thought of losing a potential client at the negotiation stage may not be so terrifying.

Afterall, you’ll tell yourself it’s not like you don’t have clients or money in the bank.

So most people tend to feel more comfortable in negotiating to get profitable prices or fees.

However, when business is tough and they feel they need money, the same people let the thought of losing the client or customer make them accept unprofitable fees or prices.

3. Managing Employees For Improved Productivity

Do you have super employees you know you can always depend on to produce needed results?

How do you treat them? Do you reward them well, or do you let the fear of offending other employees keep you from doing so?

On the other hand, do you have employees who give you problems that you are afraid to let go of because you don’t want to be called “wicked” or “bad”?

These 2 scenarios occur fairly often. Business owners who harbour fears of this kind ultimately delay taking needed action until the situation deteriorates.

In the former scenario, the poorly rewarded high performers get demoralized because they see others earn the same as they do, despite making minimal contributions.

In the latter, problematic employees become a disruptive influence in the workplace, and may even encourage other employees to emulate them.

In either case, the business suffers. All because the owner or decision maker lets unfounded fears keep him from acting assertively to reward employees in a way that sustains or even boosts morale.

Train Your Mind To Repel Fear

The human mind can be rather treacherous sometimes. It can make us forget who we are whenever tough times appear.

But you can train yourself to always remember, no matter the situation you find yourself, that you’re the same person, with the same ability to deliver results.

Burn that truth into your subconscious!

Doing so will eliminate fear in any form from your mind, so that it will not (or no longer) permit fear to influence its functioning.

And you’ll find that you can take risks intelligently, negotiate competently, and manage employees effectively, regardless of your personal circumstances.

“Quiet Success” vs “Loud Success”: Which Is Better? If you think that’s an odd question, bear with me as I explain. Generally, wealth acquired through creative endeavours (like entrepreneuring, sports, entertainment) are especially popular measures of success. In contrast, less widely followed avenues to success (like investing) can often be more lucrative, even as they require less “work”. Yet they get ignored by majority of society’s members seeking success. This probably happens because most people assume a popular endeavour will be more profitable than one which is not.

Very untrue!

How “Loud Success” Differs From “Quiet Success”

Let now clarify what I mean by the above mentioned terms.

Most adults today know the story of Michael Jackson’s success from his childhood days as a member of the Jackson Five (I’ve been a huge fan since I was old enough to think).

He was a child prodigy, the likes of which we may probably never see again. And he grew up to achieve mega levels of fame and success as an adult.

The world’s media showcased his massive talent till he became a household name, and probably the most recognizable musician worldwide.

I call that “Loud Success”.

“Loud” here is not used in a negative sense. It’s simply meant to indicate that the success achieved was widely publicised and followed by a large majority of the population.

In contrast to the above, most people around the world (who were aware of MJ’s growing success) knew little or nothing about Warren Buffet until well into his adult years, when he was declared one of the world’s richest men.

Even today, we rarely see or hear this man on TV or radio, as was the case with MJ.

To make money Mr. Buffet (unlike his musically gifted counterpart/fellow countryman) did/does not have to dance and sweat for hours under hot stage lights.

Crowds of fanaticals fans did/don’t follow him around screaming his name and pleading for autographs. We don’t have life size posters and pictures of him being briskly sold at various places.

Most interestingly, he is known for living frugally and giving away most of his wealth to charities and other causes.

And yet this man, Warren Buffet, is worth billions of dollars – more than MJ ever owned.

I call that “Quiet Success”.

“Quiet” is used here to indicate the considerably less popular nature of the route (i.e. investment) followed by this financial genius to achieve his own version of success.

(NB: I note here that MJ did get into the Guinness Book of records for his charitable giving. As an entertainer however, living frugally must have been difficult to do, even if he’d wanted to. Fame of the kind he had comes at a steep price).

A Career or Vocation Does Not Need to Be Popular to Be Profitable

Think about what I’ve said above for just one moment. I’m sure you’ll readily identify a few examples you know of, that validate my argument.

Human beings love to follow what’s considered by the crowd to be “trending”. Sometimes this can be good. But many times it can be a very unwise thing to do.

In “Gifted Hands”, his bestselling book, Dr. Ben Carson – the world famous brain surgeon – highlighted this problem with specific reference to the career choices being made by inner city African American kids.

He rightly pointed out how highly the odds are stacked up against those seeking success through playing sports without completing their education.

A lucky few make it, and those are the ones the media puts in our faces round the clock. What we often forget is that so many others who pursue success through this channel never make it to the big leagues where riches can really be had.

On the other hand, a sound education provides something to fall back on that you can exploit to build riches. It equips you to learn any vocation and succeed at it via persistence.

The only difference is that even when you begin succeeding, people may not pay you the kind of attention they devote to those in engaged in the popular vocations.

At least not while you’re yet to achieve a major breakthrough. That was the experience Ben Carson had.

But if you practice continuous improvement, and persist diligently (like he did), you’ll eventually achieve noteworthy recognition and success, with relevant financial rewards to show for it.

By way of interest, Robert Kiyosaki used a similar analogy in one of his books, contrasting Bill Gates’ route to success, with Michael Jordan’s relatively “louder” journey to success.

Final Words: Which Is Easier Or Better?

Regarding which type of success is “easier” to achieve, I believe it’s a matter of personal perspective.

Judging from my experiences, the difficulty of any task depends mainly on the perspective of the individual who has to carry it out.

Many times a task one person considers difficult (because he does not enjoy doing it), could be seen by another (who loves doing it) as easy.

It’s the same thing in business. And that’s why we’re advised to choose careers or vocations that we have a natural interest in or flair for.

As for which is “better”, I’d say for most people, the less popular route that leads to quiet success will probably prove more rewarding in the long run.

Of course, nothing stops any adequately motivated person from exploring both channels.

You could for instance try out first for success in a “loud” or popular vocation, and if unsuccessful switch to the less popular alternative.

Ultimately, your choices and decisions should be guided by a sound understanding of the distinctions between the two routes to success discussed here.

That will help you strike an intelligent balance in your pursuit of emotionally fulfilling, financially rewarding, and long lasting success.

I have yet to meet one person who started a real business without expecting to make a profit. Even if you’re not one to obsess over money or material wealth, and you actually have a great emotional investment in the venture, you still need to make profits if you plan to keep going for the long term.

Most people know this. And yet many repeatedly do the opposite, basically sabotaging themselves, by failing to do business in ways that enhance their ability to make profits, and not just money.

I used to struggle with this problem of making every transaction I had with clients profitable. Especially in the early years when I was still not sure if turning down any client, no matter how poorly he offered to pay, could ever be a wise thing to do.

Over the years, I’ve arrived at what I consider a balanced approach to dealing with the challenge.

Below I offer some insights based on my experiences since 2002 till date.

Making Yourself Popular By Being “Price Flexible”: How Far Should You Go?

It’s a known fact that finding clients willing to pay well can be a difficult feat to accomplish on a regular basis.

That’s why some people argue that you have to take bread and butter jobs at times, if business is slow.

When one is starting up, or yet to fully establish, doing that could help to keep things going.

However, at some point you’d need to draw the line.

Even if you badly need new business, it’s crucial that you do not give clients the impression that they can get your services for almost any amount they propose to you because your fees are “flexible”!

Taking on projects without showing consistency in the way you price your offers will damage your credibility, and make the client lose respect for you.

Let me explain.

I’ve never had problems learning new stuff. And that’s because I’m very comfortable asking questions when I don’t know.

Winging it never crosses my mind because I know it often yields more costly and painful outcome later on, after the initial short term benefit.

So, when I struggled in the first few years after I became an entrepreneur, to find clients willing to pay me profitably to develop custom spreadsheet software for them for instance, I asked service providers I knew for help with ideas.

One thing most of them emphasized was the need to avoid being rigid in setting one’s fees, especially when dealing with potential clients.

One way to do this is to use a low risk entry offer to get them on board, and then sell them on your main profit generating offer.

The problem I found with doing the above is that it only works well when you’re dealing with prospects or clients who are fair minded and sincere.

Those who are not are rarely satisfied with any concessions you give them. Rather, they’ll push to get you to do more without offering equivalent benefit to you.

You’re Better Off Setting Standards & Guidelines for Choosing Clients to Work With

After having the unpleasant experience mentioned above more times than I could endure, I decided it was time to find a new way.

So I read widely about methods used and recommended by other service providers mainly online, and made an interesting discovery: the problem I was having was common everywhere!

Clients behave in strangely similar ways in many different parts of the world

Ultimately, each person has to adopt a procedure that ensures he ends up working with the right kind of client at the right kind of rate (read: profitable).

But it does not end there. Being confident of your resolve to deliver on your promise to the client, you must also make her aware of the terms and conditions under which she can reasonably expect you to continue honouring that commitment.

Some people describe the above process as “training their clients”. And in a sense, that’s what it implies.

The clients you choose to work with will be those who accept that you have the competence to give them the results they want.

Such individuals will by implication appreciate that they cannot, for instance, dictate how you should do your work for them. Instead, they’ll abide by agreements reached with you, and gladly follow your lead as you implement the solution.

The interesting thing is that since you are committed and competent, clients who make it easy for you to serve them as outline above, will (all things being equal)
always get what they want from you i.e satisfactory service.

What’s more, since your client recruitment process would have confirmed they are fair minded, there’s a good chance therefore that they’ll openly acknowledge your contributions via testimonials, word of mouth referrals and possibly repeat business as well.

When you think about it, such rewards are bound to eventually make you popular in the market you serve.

Only in this case you would not be popular for being a cheap alternative service provider.

Instead clients would rave about your ability to reliably make their problems go away, or to produce a benefit they desire at a fee that they are happy to pay.

Final Words

Getting clients to work with you as described above won’t be easy.

But if you’re serious about doing business more predictably, it’s a step you need to take.

By the time you have your own method in place, you’ll discover that handling clients and prospects will become almost effortless for you.

And then doing the work you enjoy so much will really be fun – just as it earns you both profits and popularity.

There is absolutely no reason why you cannot have all three benefits (i.e fun, profits and popularity), if you consistently do a good job.

Don’t settle for less.