You show me a person that does not feel fear and I will show you a dangerous person. We all feel fear on some level when starting a new endeavor. The key is to be able to manage it. Let's look at some ideas and tips on how to overcome some of the thoughts that hold us back.

Being the owner of an internet marketing business and mentoring people in this line of work, is only one of the feathers in my cap. In what I like to call my part time job now, I am a full time firefighter in my home town. That job is far too rewarding and fulfilling to ever leave. But one of the greatest talents I have learned, and I must stress the word "learned", from riding the truck is not how to put fire in its place or tear a car apart the way most peel an orange, the great skill I learned was how to control my fear. Now the key word here is "control." Trust me when I say that every time I hear the bells ring, my heart pounds the same way yours might when you are just about to go over that first hill on a roller coaster. But learning how to control my fears is what helps me keep my head while the masses lose theirs. The biggest misconception about a firefighter or anyone in a high risk job is that they simply don't feel fear.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The main key is to simply have the courage to understand what scares you.
Remember when you were little and you were afraid of the dark? Please tell me I was not the only one. Most parents would just turn on the light to show their little ones that there was nothing different in the dark than there was in the light. Most see this major lesson in life as just a parent that wants to put their child at ease. But whether the parent knows it or not they have given a great gift to their child, and it is the gift of simply understanding that your fear is 99% an illusion. What you have to watch out for is that 1%, you understand that most of the time it is you scaring yourself. Alfred Hitchcock was a master at this. He truly understood if he merely suggested something to you, your mind would take over and scare you more than his film could ever do.

So this is all fine and dandy, but how can this help you in your new endeavor of working from home? Let's look at two of the most common fears and how they differ, but more importantly how to recognize the difference between them. The two main things I come across are new entrepreneurs worried of how people will perceive them once they start their business. The second common thing is the initial start up costs of the business. I will start with the first example, what you need to ask yourself is, are you starting this business for you or the people that know you? You are assuming that you know what people are going to think, and the fact is they don't even know what they are going to think yet, so how can you predict something they can't? This is a prime example of you projecting an outcome before it has even happened. This is text book, fear controlling the person. This is no way to live your life. I think we all know someone close to you that is more worried about what people think than what they in fact think. I spent 4 years of high school in this painful way of thinking, as most of us did. As for the second example of what most people fear in starting a new business, it is the financial strain of the startup costs, regardless of your financial status. This is a little different than the first example, for the simple reason this is a legitimate fear due to the fact that losing money is real. If you can't pay your bills due to a bad business decision, all the positive thinking in the world will not get you out of this problem. This is the 1% I warned you about. Always keep in mind that at times we feel fear to keep us safe. Disregarding this feeling of fear, or sometimes referred to as a "bad gut feeling", will result in a very unfavorable out come. If you are looking to start an online business but you feel the start up costs will put you or your loved ones in a very sticky spot financially, this is not a fear, it's a reality! In this case you need to assess your situation and the level of risk and proceed accordingly. I always say, I am never bothered by how bad a house fire is as long as I have a window to jump out of. Business is the same. Never put yourself in a spot that you can't escape from.

Now some will say this is how you become successful; to take the risks that others back down from. Although this may be true, you must ask yourself if the risk is worth the reward. It is one thing to have heard the statement 'risk vs. reward.' It is an entirely different thing to truly understand this concept. So as you can see both examples are examples of fear, one being something that is perceived and the other as real as the computer you are reading this article on. The key to success is recognizing the difference between the two and having the insight to know how to battle each case. This brings me back to the child that is afraid of the dark. If you understand fully the situation you are getting into, you have a better understanding of your fear and therefore can conquer it. The first thing I tell every person that I help with their work from home endeavor, is to take the time to understand the animal that you are trying to take down. Educate yourself to the point that when the fear strikes, you have the knowledge to turn on the lights and watch your fear shrink and scurry under the bed where it belongs, or just get out of its way and let it sail by.

The reason that I write a full time blog on educating people on the understanding of any work from home project is that I truly feel that anyone can buy the tools to make it in this line of work but the successful ones understand what they are doing and can run their business accordingly.

I hope this has given you some tips on how you can manage your fear of taking that first leap into business ownership. I will leave you with one great quote I heard about understanding the illusion of fear. It was from one of the great entrepreneurs of all time, Henry Ford. It states, "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."

About Author / Additional Info:
Carl
www.carlsnetworkingblog.com
Success Is Not An Accident