The Starting Entrepreneur – Overcoming Self Doubt

Being an entrepreneur demands several and different traits. You will have make decisions, analyze situations, inspire and organize human resources, maybe struggle with financial hardships, put up with investment burdens, risks and even bear losses when they come. This is why many people don’t like being entrepreneurs; they prefer the safety of working for an employee who carries these responsibilities for themselves and get the monthly check and other “benefits”, as they call them, in return, like retiring when at their get 67 with social security pension. Yes, being an entrepreneur demands a lot of qualities of which one is the ability to bear and handle hard times as well as having the nerves to undergo every consequence of your choices.

I decided to gradually quit my job in 2010 as I was thinking of launching my own small online business amid financial crisis. I started my Software reviews and coupons blog last autumn and I totally abandoned my job a month ago. As you have realized already, to move from an employee to an entrepreneur – not just to self-employment (yes, entrepreneurship and self-employment are two different things) – you have to abandon your way of thinking and adopt a new one. It’s true that the environment you live in and the people you interact with, have a huge impact on you, your way of thinking and consequently your life-style. Of course, in order to make a change of this scale one has to change not only habits but primarily one’s whole mindset and adopt and cultivate new traits. This takes time and requires good mentoring. During this period of launching and trying my blog, the biggest hurdle I had to face was my self-doubt.

Self-Doubt

Going through ups and downs, the most challenging difficulty facing every starting entrepreneur is self doubt. When it sets in, we all begin to question our intelligence and strengths.  We tend to believe we haven’t done everything we ought to and therefore cannot make profitable decisions. We witness this at one point or the other in our business life. Remember this: you can succeed even if nobody believes in you, but you can’t succeed if you don’t believe in yourself. It takes self determination and commitment to move a business. But when self doubt sets in, it wipes all these necessary qualities away and leaves the person vulnerable.

Many people find this stage unbearable and results to what Rebel Brown called “give power away”. By not trusting themselves, people tend to depend exclusively on other people’s personal opinions and directions. We must all understand that no matter how we try to emulate others, we can’t duplicate their success. Blindly following other people’s directions will not make us leaders. Plus we stand liable to unfortunate events because we can’t analyze the market and predict the future due to our self doubt.

On the other hand, having a mentor is crucial for a novice businessman’s emotional state. I personally managed to reduce my learning curve drastically, because of my mentor who would guide me in every step of the way to independence. I also had grown an unprecedented self confidence because he would inspire and encourage me along this way.

What Is The Cause Of Self Doubt?

Virtually every entrepreneur has a list of plans to follow and goals to achieve. We have all sketched that long sheet of paper containing 2 year plans, 3 year plans,  etc. We live in the technology era and almost every thing is now digitized. It has also affected every other sector hence we are facing a very dynamic market which continuously evolves. What worked until today might not work right tomorrow and might not even work at all in years to come. The plans we drafted when we started our business cannot possibly carry us all the way to the end. Our goals may be intact with just few touches but the techniques and marketing strategies surely have changed. Sticking to an old plan despite the dynamic nature of the market has been the major cause of negative results and deteriorating statistics in businesses. These are usually the conditions in which self doubt starts to grow inside, as you start seeing your effectiveness and your numbers falling.

How Do You Curb Self Doubt?

Self doubt is a challenge that every entrepreneur must face at one point in their life. We should all be prepared and never allow it to take us by surprise. On your entrepreneurial journey, you should always look beyond your difficulties. Getting yourself locked up with your dreams and initial techniques without seeking for new ideas, other people’s findings, and taking the advice of experts will get you sinking down the road quickly.

Occasionally, ask yourself these questions:

• What is my belief?
• What do I intend to achieve?
• Where am I now?
• What am I not doing that would help me?

If you are able to provide adequate answers to these questions, you can easily get yourself back on the track. Stop sabotaging your own actions and feelings. By thinking of your next failure you are actually preparing yourself emotionally for it and your actions will soon follow to the self-initiated catastrophic path.

There are a lot of places to get help and the inspiration to move ahead, but never delegate the decisions of your business to a third person. It is not a true quality of a leader and is a sign of incapacitation. Remember that you CAN run your business on your own. All you need is a little determination and a bit of courage.

Tagged as: Entrepreneurship, Self-doubt

This post was written by...

Steven Papas – who has written 1 posts on Eden Journal.

Steven Papas is the owner of the VeryBestSoftware.net where he gives blogging tips, software reviews and discount coupons like the Norton 360 promotional coupon and the latest Acronis coupons.