Fear is anxiety caused by real or imagined danger or pain. It is apprehension or concern for one’s well-being.
Doubt is natural to every human being, young and old, inexperienced and experienced.We all have our limitations.Wiping doubt out of our minds is a technique we all need to learn. Every challenge that we face every day requires a decision. If doubt exists, decisions will not be made, and if they are, the odds are that they will be erroneous.
Many people are fearful about issues that they cannot control. It is human to feel this way. However, in business, there are so many things you can’t con- trol that you need to develop a positive mindset.
Determine what you are capable of changing, and do it. Accept what you have no control over changing, and do not try.
Why worry about issues that you cannot control? Suppose you are given the opportunity to present your new firm’s qualifications in a personal interview for a major project. Suddenly, the potential client takes ill and asks to reschedule the appointment. Further, the client calls on Friday and promises to call back the following Monday.This event will set many businesspeople “off ” in hundreds of
ways—to doubting the situation, developing fear, and worrying until the prospect calls.
Some will begin to worry that the client has already made a decision and is not telling the truth. Others, having prepared extensively, will lose their momentum and interest. Still others will wonder if a competitor’s interviews went overtime and extremely well.
You must be able to separate your emotional and intellectual feelings on an issue. Sure, emotionally you may be concerned about the client’s cancel- ing your interview. However, intellectually you realize you have no control over the situation—so why worry about it? Spend the time you now have open in your afternoon schedule to deal productively with other issues in the firm.
Fear is packaged two ways in life: real fear and imagined fear. The exam- ple used above illustrates imagined fear. Real fear is when you need “that”
check from your client to make ends meet. You call the client, talk it over, and agree to drive to the client’s office to pick up the check personally. Then, when you get there, you discover the client had to leave because of an emer- gency and didn’t sign the check for you. This is the sort of real fear you will experience.
People react to fear because they are afraid of making mistakes, being a failure, and being subject to rejection. Many do not even attempt to take on challenges because of their fear of not succeeding and being subject to ridicule. How many intern designers do you know who are so scared of the professional registration exam that they cannot even find the nerve to take it?
Fear is an emotion that lives with each and every one of us, every hour of every day, and will continue to live with us to our grave.Whether it is passing that test, catching that airplane, getting that job, convincing that client, or hav- ing that baby, we will always show concern over events in our lives. Believe it or not, some people have fear of success, and of the potential life that will be associated with their success! They are so comfortable with themselves, they do not want to change for fear that it will make them uncomfortable.
You must learn to view fear positively. Think of fear as the necessary pulse or alternator in your daily life. Every business, from the largest corpo- ration to the smallest one-person design firm, deals with the same concerns and issues, and fear exists in every mind involved. Sure, you can worry about cash flow right along with General Motors. Come to think of it,
if you really concentrate, you can imagine that none of your clients will pay you over the next sixty days, and you will go into bankruptcy! What you need to do is take that fear of not being paid (which is imagined fear) and turn it around. Use the emotional energy created to physically call the clients and manage the accounts. Stay on top of it, address it, and channel the fear toward positive action. Remember the extent of the emotional experience of that fear, build upon it, and measure it the next time this encounter occurs.Your experience will remind you of the process you went through; therefore, your fear will be less than when first encountered.
Remember the first time you rode your bicycle? Remember the training wheels? The first time your parent or friend “let go” and you rode for the first time without training wheels or that helpful, steady hand that aided you in defying gravity? The same applies to business. Learn by doing. Learn from your mistakes and others’ mistakes. Success is the sweet reward for address- ing and overcoming your fear(s). Don’t feel alone in this difficult part of a firm’s development. Talk to others about your fears. You will be amazed at what you hear. Our parents and grandparents helped guide us through life’s challenges when we were younger. Why not seek guidance now in an area such as business, in which you have little experience? I have always said,
“You can’t appreciate the good without experiencing some bad.” Life is about encountering good and bad. The successful experience the bad, but are fortunate enough to encounter more good.
Another fear common to all designers is where the next commission will come from. Don’t waste time worrying about this issue! Exhibit a positive attitude. Feel confident that the next lead is right around the corner and that you will take it on successfully. For most of us, the next commission will come in out of nowhere, unexpectedly. Some great things happen when you least expect them. You can’t be nonchalant about this; but the longer you are in business, you will find that you can count on numerous opportunities to occur from time to time. That is why you always have to “be on” and develop a good, solid reputation. Word will spread positively without you having any- thing to do with it, thus expanding your network and producing new design opportunities. Remember, it is not what you know, it is who you know that counts in growing a business.
Addressing fear by manipulating it like an alternator in an automobile makes fear work for you. It keeps you alive with a motivating charge,
sparking your activity toward success. That pulse, or frequency, is a constant in your day-to-day business life. It is the most important driving force. Think of it as a design challenge. Rarely do we have the entire project designed in the first minute or hour of its life. As a matter of fact, if you were to think of the design process that you would undertake over the next few weeks or months and try to do all of it in a day or two, you would be overwhelmed with fear. But what are we trained to do as designers? We incorporate the steady process of trial and error, step by step, to achieve a successful design composition that satisfies the needs of our client or the aesthetic eye with which we are gifted.When we get behind, the adrenaline kicks in so we can complete the task at hand.
Fear will diminish when you deal with an issue the second time, having learned from the first experience. Also, when you establish inchpebbles, you break down the fear into manageable little pieces, and emotionally you can deal with smaller challenges more easily. It is like getting on that bike for the first time in thirty years. Many of us don’t think twice about it, and take it for granted that we will not fall off. And you won’t! It is amazing how few of us encounter fear in that experience.