Have you thought about making a change in your VR business but worried you’ll make a mistake?
Have you thought about making an improvement for your rental business but thought – what if it doesn’t work out?
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You should do one thing every day that scares you.”
But she didn’t mean for you to watch the movie Scream or for you to Google your flu symptoms to see if you’ve got some scary disease!
She was referring to our everyday coziness of living.
She was speaking about people being hardwired to avoid the stressful day-to-day situations in our lives and why we should do the opposite of that.
Why Entrepreneurs Dreams Don’t Come True
In working with all sorts of people over the years, I’ve observed that an issue with the human condition is, we have the tendency to go in the path of least resistance.
9 times out of 10 people will take the easiest, less stressful way out of their situations because it’s most “comfortable” for them.
So if there is an obstacle, challenge or fear in front of us, we’ll do what we can to avoid it.
And that is part of the problem of why Entrprenuers fail!
In the Entrepreneur series, I wrote a blog explaining how every one of you is an entrepreneur by definition.
I also shared why 80% of VR business owners will fail. You can read about that here.
If you’re going to be a succesful rentalpreneur (and I know you want to be) you’ve got to avoid the entreprenuers kiss of death.
What is that exactly?
It’s the fear of failure!
The fear of failure, without a doubt, will kill your vacation rental business.
It’s the biggest reason why we don’t pursue our dreams and why we leave this world without fulfilling our full potential.
Whether we subconsciously or willingly let fear into our lives, it inevitably finds its way in.
To achieve great success you’ll have to purge yourself regularly of the fear of failure and those thoughts in your head that intimidate you because we just can’t succeed if we’re too scared of trying and failing.
Avoiding our fears doesn’t help us, it discourages growth in our businesses and ourselves.
The reality is that in business, success isn’t comfortable. It’s often stressful and sometimes hurts.
At least those are the signs of a growing business/person, because growth comes with growing pains and failures but the trade off is almost always worth the “pain” rentalpreneurs go through.
No Pain – No Gain!
It’s in the pain not the pleasures that we gain and learn the most, don’t you agree?
Growing a business is a lot like weight lifting.
In order for your “business muscles” to grow, you’ve got to be willing to purposefully rip your muscles, if you want to see a noticeable increase in volume.
So I say… Bring It On!
You’ve got to get out of your comfort zone, face your fears and purposely do something “scary” as Eleanor Roosevelt said – every single day.
Do something that makes you feel uncomfortable, something that intimidates you.
You’ve got to get used to putting yourself into uncomfortable positions no matter how much it scares you.
Why?
Once we know we can live through something when we’re faced with it, the fear loses its power over us and we can grow outside of our “comfort bubble.”
Once we do what we’re scared of that fear doesn’t stress and intimidate us as much.
That’s how you become a fearless rentalpreneur!
The Truth About Fear
The thing about fear is that it’s often the thought of the thing we are fearful of that is greater than the actual situation that ends up happening .
Our fears seem much smaller when looking at them from the rearview mirror.
So How Can We Change The Way We Feel?
Ever heard someone say, “I can’t change the way I feel”? That’s not true. It’s an excuse to avoid confronting how they’re feeling.
If you’re willing, you can indeed change the way you feel about something.
And there is actually a scientific way used to change the feeling of being fearful.
It is known as the therapeutic process of systematic desensitization.
Systematic desensitization is the process of gradually exposing yourself to your fears until the fear disappears over-time.
Playing It Safe Isn’t Safe At All
Playing it safe is one of the most dangerous things a business owner/CEO/vacation rental owner can do.
In order for yourself and your business to grow you’ve got to do something that scares you and do it everyday.
I know that there are many owners out there who are very shy when it comes to putting themselves in the front of their audience.
I want to encourage you to start taking some steps towards that.
Maybe today is the day you’ll put your actual photo on your social network instead of that picture of your cat.
Maybe today is the day you record that first video.
Maybe today you’ll pick up the phone and get the other person on the other line to hear your voice. Instead of just sending them an email.
Maybe today is the day you’ll admit you need some help and you’ll reach out to someone.
If There Is No Risk, There Is No Reward
You might say, “Jay, I’m not fearful of anything. I’m not worried about anything in my business.”
I’ll say your business will probably be obsolete in a few years or less because if things are easy, you’re doing something wrong!
If you don’t have any fears about your business, then you’re not risking enough.
Remember, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, so in a way as entrepreneurs we should be scared shitless.
But our fears should make us better and motivate us not stop us from moving forward.
Failure Is Just Delayed Success
In a time of crisis, you can’t freeze up like a dear in the headlights and do nothing.
You also can’t wait to make a move in your business when the time is right.
The fear of making a bad decision causes indecision in entrepreneurs, which in most cases, is worse than making a bad decision.
Bottom line: You will fail sometimes. Become comfortable with that.
Fail quickly and often so you can find your success as soon as possible.
So what are you waiting for? Claim your success AND failures today!
“The key to change… is to let go of fear.”
–Roseanne Cash
Very inspirational post Jay!
Thanks Josh! When we take the fear of failure out of our hearts, its amazing what we can accomplish.
A very common fear is the fear of rejection. This hinders sales and bookings hugely. Many sales people are scared to ask people to book, pay and talk on the phone because they dont want the other person to tell them no, they feel its a form of rejection. Its a problem!
When we dont have the fear of failure to control our thoughts and creating insecurity in our mind, we develop a confidence that transfers to the clients we talk to, and confidence increases bookings!
Great post and it’s true when you remove the fear of ‘what if it doesn’t……’ then you can accomplish anything.
We moved her 4 years ago from the UK, took a leap of faith, removed the fear from our hearts and sold up everything lock stock and barrell. The reason for selling up was so we could release the past and walk unhindered into our future. Some friends and colleagues said to us ‘what happen’s if it doesn’t work out’ – WOW we hadn’t even got to the good ‘ole US of A and BOOM a negative fired to us straight away! My reply to that was ‘it will work out, we have every faith in ourselves, our ability and most of all our decision’.
I love this quote from Rikki Rogers:-
“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”
We all make mistakes and have failures, that’s life but we get back on that horse and take that ride again! When we are fearless, we live free!
Have a great weekend everyone!