Amelia Earhart once said: ‘‘Courage is the price that life extracts for granting peace.’’
A major setback can shake your confidence in yourself and your abilities. The natural reaction to an unexpected reversal of fortune is to feel stunned, shocked, and angry, as if you have just been punched emotionally in the stomach. This response is normal and natural for all of us when we experience sudden reversals and disappointments.
No matter what happens, remind yourself that you are a thoroughly good person. You are a person of character, competence, and intelligence. No matter what has happened, you have the ability to rise to the challenge and deal with the situation. Talk to yourself positively in order to rebuild your self-confidence.
Whenever something goes seriously wrong, you experience the fear of failure. You immediately feel this fear in the pit of your stomach. You may feel that you are not capable or competent. Sometimes, you feel like a loser. When things go wrong, in spite of your best efforts, you will often have feelings of self-doubt.
Fortunately, you can neutralise these negative feelings by saying firmly to yourself that you can do anything that you put your mind to. Tell yourself that there is no problem that you cannot solve. Look upon solving the problem or resolving the crisis as a test of your character and intelligence. See it as a challenge, something that has been sent to help you to grow in knowledge and wisdom.
THE WORRY-BUSTER FORMULA
One of the very best ways to clear your mind and build your confidence in your ability to solve the problem is to quickly use the four-part worry-buster formula. Here it is: (1) Stop and identify the worst possible outcome of the problem or crisis. Be perfectly honest with yourself and others. Ask, ‘‘What is the worst thing that can happen in this situation?’’ (2) Resolve to accept the worst, whatever it is, should it occur. This action calms you down and clears your mind. Once you have mentally decided that you can live with the worst possible outcome, you will stop worrying. (3) Determine what you would do if the worst possible outcome occurred. What actions would you take? (4) Begin immediately to improve upon the worst possible outcome. Identify everything you could do to minimise the damage or reduce your losses. Focus all your time and attention on achieving the very best outcome you possibly can.
THE WORRY ANTIDOTE
The only real antidote to worry is purposeful action in the direction of your goals. Instead of becoming upset or doubting yourself and your abilities, decide to take action, any action, to resolve the difficulty and get yourself through the crunch. Remind yourself that problems come not to obstruct, but to instruct.
Especially, do not take the setback or problem personally. In business, no matter how smart or experienced you are, 70 per cent of your decisions will turn out to be wrong or disappointing in the fullness of time. Do not be surprised or upset when negative things happen to you. They happen to everyone who goes into business or accepts a position of responsibility in any organisation.
Self-confidence comes from a feeling of forward motion toward your goals. Get so busy working on the solutions to your problems that you do not have time to worry about what has happened, especially things that you cannot change.
GO FORWARD
When your business hits a crunch point, Brian Tracy advises that, you must make the survival of your company your primary consideration. “Desperate situations often require desperate measures. You must be prepared to do whatever is necessary to resolve the crisis and save the situation.”
The most common quality of leaders throughout the ages is their quality of vision. Leaders have a clear, exciting vision of where they want to go and what they want to accomplish in the future. They articulate this vision clearly to the people around them. This vision then serves as a guide to motivate and inspire people to achieve at ever-higher levels. Vision is what separates leaders from followers.
The second most common quality of leaders is courage. Winston Churchill wrote that ‘‘courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend.’’
The fact is that everyone is afraid. We all have fears of different kinds, small and large, hidden and exposed. Mark Twain said, ‘‘Courage is not lack of fear, but control of fear, mastery of fear.’’ In crunch time, you must draw on your courage to make hard choices and decisions and to do the things necessary to ensure the survival and well-being of the people and the organisation that depend on you.
The worst effect of the fear of failure is that it can cause paralysis. People go into a state of emotional shock. They freeze up. The fear of failure can cause even strong people to become indecisive and irresolute.
DO THE THING YOU FEAR
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, ‘‘If you would become a success, you must resolve to confront your fears. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain.’’
You develop courage in yourself by facing your fears and doing the things that you are most afraid to do. In business, the greatest fear (after the fears of firing someone or being fired, and financial loss or bankruptcy) is the fear of confrontation. Many people are afraid to make hard choices and deal with people in a clear, unequivocal, and straightforward way. They fear angry responses, argument, and conflict. This inability to confront people both inside and outside of the business can often be fatal to the enterprise.
Fortunately, courage can be developed by acting courageously. When you do something that you fear, you feel more courageous. In life, the courage follows the courageous behavior. You become courageous by acting courageously, even when you do not feel like it. Emerson also wrote, ‘‘Do the thing and you will have the power.’’ Do not be afraid to make hard decisions, especially with regard to people and expenses.
GO INTO CRISIS MODE
When your business experiences a sudden crisis, you must go into ‘‘crisis mode.’’ You must act as though your business were on the verge of failure. If you were threatened with bankruptcy, what actions or cutbacks would you make to save your business? Whatever you would be prepared to do to save your business sometime in the future, do it immediately.
Be aggressive about defending and protecting your business and your finances. Do not be afraid to discontinue, downsize, or eliminate any business activity. If necessary, do not hesitate to lay off or fire people who are either unnecessary or incompetent. “The fear of firing an incompetent employee in a key position is a major reason for business failure.”
The author Dorothea Brande once wrote that the most important advice she ever received was to ‘‘act as if it were impossible to fail, and it shall be.’’
THE TWO PARTS OF COURAGE
There are two parts of courage. The first is the courage to launch, to begin, to step out in faith with no guarantee of success. This is an essential part of courage that you can develop with practice.
The second is the courage to endure, to persist in the face of disappointment and temporary failure. Your job in business is to develop the courage to do whatever is necessary to fight the fire, solve the problem, and get through the crunch. This is the hallmark and the test of true leadership. Herodotus once said, ‘‘Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal while others obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before’’
BY CAPT SAM ADDAIH (RTD)
