45 Fear Of Failure Quotes To Overcome The Fear Of Your Mind
Failure can be frightening. But it is the key to success. You experience failure by putting yourself into action, allowing you to test theories. A famous saying is that ‘Practice Makes Perfect' and only by making mistakes will you learn. You gain experience by failing.
But in reality, failure is an important lesson to learn. In fact, just like experience, failure is one of the greatest teachers in life and business.
Unfortunately, many people are afraid of failure. They would rather “play it safe” than take risks that may cause them to fail.
Many entrepreneurs battle with this fear that has held them for so long. So I have gathered the best fear of failure quotes in this article and given you key lessons on how to overcome this infamous entrepreneurial fear.
Motivational Quotes About Failure
Kakorrhaphiophobia is the irrational fear of failure that has hindered many entrepreneurs from doing anything. It is so severe that entrepreneurs and founders prefer to stand still rather than move forward to greatness.
This section contains fear of failure quotes that expose the truth about failure in business and why it is important to fail.
Fear of failure is the biggest hindrance to success. Fear will prevent you from taking action toward any dream or goal if you're scared to fail. It keeps you in your comfort zone, and there is hardly any growth in the comfort zone.
You are not the only one going through the fear of failure. Statistics show that about 42.6% of U.S startup founders suffer from the fear of failure.
Failure allows you to start over and, this time, better and wiser. When you fail, you should acknowledge it and separate your identity from the failure. Failure is an event, not your characteristics.
Failure is a lesson. If you are afraid to fail then you are afraid of lessons, growth, and success.
Don't get scared of failure such that you refuse to leave your comfort zone or take action towards your goals. Those failures are beneficial because they lay the foundation for future success. With failures, you learn, and as you know, you create the building for your success.
Therefore, allow yourself to make those mistakes. In them is the understanding, wisdom, and knowledge needed to achieve the bigger picture.
Failures are never your destination. They are just part of the hurdles to your success. You take actions, fail, learn, improve and repeat till you eventually get it right. The worst thing is not failing. Instead, it is not trying at all or giving up when you should have been resilient.
Whenever I feel like giving up, I always remember the most important lesson I learned from the business tycoons. They never gave up, regardless of how many times they failed.
Success can never be handed to you on a platter, without any hassle. Riches can be handed to you on a platter if you can from a rich home. You can be famous without even trying if you came from a famous background. But none of these guarantees success.
What guarantees success is perseverance, determination, and hard work. To get success, you must be prepared to fail.
Never be scared to fail; no successful person who has made it today didn't fail during the early days. The success you see roots today in dozens of failures and trials.
Ask people who are living lives of regret today; guilt is destructive. Words like “I should have done this” or “I wish I launched that business years ago” are signs of regret.
It gets worse when someone else is successful based on the business or journey you gave up on.
Fear weakens the mind and demotivates the spirit. Sometimes fear comes from what you think people will say.
Never allow people's opinions or how society views you to stop you from trying new things. Never let the fear of getting it wrong or making mistakes be the stumbling block to trying new things.
Fear can keep you from living out expectations and your old age in regrets. Will it get scary? Yes. But do it, afraid.
What do you do when failure knocks at your door? Do you fold yourself up and lament how much of a failure you have been? Or do you analyze the mistake and see what you could do better? Your attitude towards failure counts.
Failure is like a second chance, and what do we do with a second chance? We begin again but wiser.
When you fail, ask yourself these questions it will help you get it right the next time:
- What areas did I get it right?
- What areas did I make mistakes in?
- What are the things I'm expected not to do again?
- What should I avoid? And how should I avoid them?
- What do I replace them with?
The more risk you are willing to take, the greater the glory that comes with it. If your fear only allows you to take little actions, you will achieve little success. But if you kick off anxiety and go for something big, you will gain something big, though not immediately.
What size of fear are you ready to kick off? Ensure you kick off the fear as immense as your dream because that determines your success.
For every failure, there is a direct proportional success or, in some cases, more tremendous success.
However, you can't attain success if you are not willing to go through failure. You can choose to be stagnant or creative and take a step. You can choose to allow your fear to determine your next course in life or rule over that fear.
Everyone has experienced failure before, even the most innovative entrepreneurs. There's no chance that your success journey will be different.
What matters is how prepared you are to grow, stand up when you fall, and keep moving.
You often fear failure because of what people say or how they see you. Many people saw Thomas Eddison as a madman when he kept trying electricity and failing until he finally got it.
If you listen to people, you won't achieve anything. That same group of people who will say terrible things about you when you fail will want to cling to you when you succeed. So, why listen to them and let them determine your future?
Failure is but a temporary setback. Therefore, disregard every consequence and pursue your future.
Accept failure as part of the process if you are determined to achieve something in life. Failure shouldn't be what will scare you but rather the common goals you set for yourself.
In aiming low, because you are too scared to fail, you belittle yourself and your capabilities.
Successful entrepreneurs challenge themselves to do better. Whether successful entrepreneurs are born or made doesn't matter. What matters is that everyone has what it takes to succeed. You don't need to let fear hinder you and prohibit your success
Absolute failure starts when you stop being true to yourself. If you are doing so, there are chances that you lose yourself in the crowd. To keep being true to yourself in every endeavor
- Always acknowledge who you are. Appreciate your strength
- Check-in with yourself. Analyze your goals, visions, and what you want. Ask yourself if that's what you are doing or if you curl yourself up in a spot.
If you are curling up in a spot, it's time to become true to yourself and your plans. The first step is stepping out of that spot. Take action and try out something, do it afraid.
It is not wrong to make mistakes. But when you don't learn from the errors or make an effort to make things right, it becomes terrible.
Don't refuse to accept mistakes. Nobody became a master at one shot. The truth is making mistakes and learning is part of success.
You can't learn or improve if you don't accept your mistakes. To succeed in that business, plan and take action. Each time you do it, you learn something from it, find imperfections and flaws, and avoid making those errors next time. Practice makes you the best over time.
Here, I will explain the common fears entrepreneurs face which is caused or triggered by fear of failure.
Fear is more of a psychological obstacle than a physical or emotional one. It preys on your mind and makes you believe in negative things that haven't happened to you yet.
As a business leader or entrepreneur, you are most likely to feel afraid or unsure about yourself. Even if you trust yourself, you may doubt your team or business. No matter how you try, fear will always be there. But what is most important is that you do not give in to it.
The fear of failure is the most common entrepreneurial fear. In fact, it is the mother of all fears because it triggers other fears. Fear of failure can make you too afraid to take on amazing business opportunities or even try following your dream.
It's so horrible that many aspiring entrepreneurs prefer to give up on their vision that could change the world. They would rather settle for mediocrity than take the chance to succeed.
Be bold to take that first step. Make those plans knowing that you are not perfect and will make mistakes. Chances are you will get it right with time.
Fear of failure can manifest as reluctance to try new things. It can also manifest as self-sabotage, perfectionism, and low self-esteem. For everything you want to do in life, there's a chance you will fail but letting those fears rule you are saying bye to your dreams and goals, especially in that business.
Another fear entrepreneurs deal with is the fear of the unknown. People become scared because they don't know what will happen in the future. Taking a leap of faith into the unknown is a huge risk you have to take if you want to get to the top.
As an entrepreneur, you have goals and want to achieve them. However, you cannot control everything to go your way. Many people realize that and this is what scares them. They don't know what to expect.
But simply being afraid of the unknown doesn't solve anything. In fact, it only makes things worse.
Focus your energy on what you can control, not what you can't. For example, when building a business, you can control the quality of the product or service you render. But you cannot control people's minds to patronize you.
You can focus your energy on improving your quality instead of trying to control people's minds.
Also, learn to think more positively. Thinking more positively will help reduce self-sabotage and build self-confidence. In that business dream, build positive thoughts. Replace ‘what if it fails? With ‘What if everybody likes my idea? What if this business becomes huge?'
Discouragement and failure are the building blocks of success. Be sure to expect them in your journey. However, what you do with failure and discouragement determines where your journey ends.
Most business owners are afraid of change. They are so comfortable in their current position that they don't ever want to change their status.
This is most common for new entrepreneurs who set small or mediocre goals. They managed to achieve those goals but do not want to aim higher because they are scared that they may fail.
Avoiding change is another way of saying you are scared of failure. Without change, your business will fail to develop. No industry remains the same for many years. Thanks to technology, every industry is not what it used to be ten years ago.
If you fail to change, your business will be left behind and outdated.
The best way to embrace change is to have a growth mindset. A growth mindset is a key characteristic of the right entrepreneurial mindset. Focus on becoming better. If you fall, you will rise again.
Your business journey can end as just an idea if you remain stuck in failure. But if you work on the failure and develop success from it, you will have a fantastic tale to tell.
Imagine if JK Rowlings gave up after rejection from 12 publishers. Do you think the book “Harry Potter” would have been a bestseller?
The deal with success is rising every time you face setbacks and rising every time failure hits you on the floor.
Every entrepreneurial leader or business owner must learn how to take risks. Sadly, many people are afraid of risks so they remain in their tiny comfort zone or box.
The truth is that risks can either bring you to success or failure. But you will never know if you don't make the courageous step to take those risks.
Presenting your sales pitch to investors is a risk. They may accept or reject you. But the only way you can know is if you take the risk and present your pitch. If you get rejected, you pick up the key lessons to learn and try again.
It doesn't matter if you make mistakes or hardly get them right. Your worst regret will be not taking a step toward those beautiful ideas and plans.
They will keep the remaining plan and never see the light of day until you step out of your comfort zone. Yes, stepping out is not easy. Our brain, as humans, is wired to remain and retain comfort. Stepping won't be easy, but it is your pathway to success.
After talking with several entrepreneurs, one common personal challenge I found that they have is the fear of not being good enough.
The fear of not being good enough is the mother of self-sabotage, self-doubt, and very low self-confidence. It is the reason why many brilliant entrepreneurs are afraid to take the step to the greatest.
Fear makes you second-guess yourself and your abilities. Before you know it, you are running away and giving up on your goals.
The truth is that you are your biggest motivation. When you start seeing yourself as strong, smart, and capable, you'll feel more encouraged to take the big steps.
Many of the successful entrepreneurs you see today once had self-doubt. They didn't believe they were good enough to achieve such great goals. But with time, they realized that they are just as good enough as anyone else. These entrepreneurs didn't let self-doubt stop them from going for greatness. They took control of their life and mind and worked their way to success.
You can learn a thing or two from their stories. Never let fear define you. Think positive thoughts. If you feel overwhelmed, meditate on inspiring believe-in-yourself quotes to boost your self-confidence.
By overcoming failure, you will be sure of getting to your destination. You overcome failure through continuous practice; with constant practice comes failure and learning.
In your business, it is natural for you to hit some losses before hitting the large market. The essential thing is that you keep trying. Don't stay on the floor even when failure pushes you to the floor. See failure as one of the ladders to success.
Many businesses are not in existence today because of fear. Many dreams and goals have perished today and, in worst cases, died with the dreamers and vision owners because of fear of failure.
The more you fear failure, the more you are cruel to yourself and your generation. You deny yourself, your generation, and the world the input you are here to create.
Conquering those fears is your first step to living a purposeful life. Yes, it won't be easy but take it one day and one step at a time.
Does the vision look so big? Break it down into smaller and simpler goals and be ready to do all it takes not to deny the world you.
It doesn't matter how many losses you have incurred; the main thing is that you decide to remain resilient. It does not matter how many start-ups you established that closed down; what matters is that you keep trying.
The owners of Piggyvest, a successful fintech company in Africa, once spoke about how they started almost 20 businesses that failed. But they kept going till they eventually started Piggyvest and grew it to one of the biggest fintech companies in Africa.
You may have started many businesses and they failed due to circumstances. That doesn't make you a failure. What makes you a failure is when you give up on trying.
Statistics show that over 90% of startups fail every year. If there are over 305 million startups created every year, you can imagine the total number that fails. Businesses fail daily. So you are not the only one experiencing failure.
What makes you different from the rest is your determination to keep pushing forward.
An essential skill you need to have is perseverance. It is the ability to keep trying until you succeed. Failure indicates a new beginning. It is a stepping stone. Learn from past mistakes to keep leveling up.
Remember, the fundamental error is to give up and stop trying.
JK Rowlings, who made this quote faced rejection from publishers; about twelve of them before her book ‘Harry Potter' became a global hit. The book got adapted into a movie that remains one of the most iconic films ever made.
If it scares you to be out there because of failure, then that dream is valid, and the more reason you should be out there.
The road will never be easy, it wasn't easy for Rowlings and other successful entrepreneurs or business leaders. But they pushed through until they succeeded. Every success is a bag of failure emptied with lessons extracted.
It doesn't matter the type of entrepreneur you are, you will face challenges.
Try and fail, then try and fail again. Keep doing so until you become the household name you desire.
People who are constantly scared that they will make mistakes in life are already making a mistake. How? The time and energy you use to analyze the steps it will take to go through with a plan and then fail and probably go through ridicule is the same time it will take to step out and actualize that plan.
Yes, business plans can be scary, especially when you have investors. But, you will never know the outcome if you don't leap.
The more you are bent on analyzing the errors and failures waiting for you, the more mistakes you make towards that business idea. Take the bull by the horn and step out.
Quotes About Overcoming The Fear of Business Failure
This section contains inspiring quotes and key lessons to help you overcome the fear of failure before it ruins you.
The first and most important step to overcoming the fear of entrepreneurial failure is understanding that failure is a prerequisite for success. You have to fail first before you can succeed.
Success and failures are twin siblings that can't do without each other. You can't take one and leave the other. You can only experience them when you are a risk-taker.
Taking risks doesn't mean that you will succeed every time. You can fail, which will help you grow as a person. Life itself and everything about it lies heavily on taking risks. For example, investing time and money to help your business grow is a risk.
To overcome the fear of failure, you need to understand that failure is normal. It happens to everyone. Just because you experienced failure many times doesn't mean that you are a failure.
Start by changing the way you perceive failure. As you do, you develop a new and better perspective on failure.
Failures are never easy to deal with, especially when it keeps happening repeatedly. Don't let those failures affect your identity. It is an event, not who you are. Give room for those failures to teach you.
If you are a first-generation entrepreneur, you may experience more fear about getting it right. You are the first entrepreneur in your family, which means you have to start from scratch.
When you fail, sit back and analyze what you did and didn't do well. Appreciate yourself for what you did well and take lessons from what you didn't do well.
You have nothing to lose in taking that step and risk. You may say your reputation, but remind yourself that once you die, there's nothing like your reputation anymore. People will only remember you for what you did.
If you consider that you will leave this earth one day, you will start making healthy and better decisions. You should be bold enough to take tough steps.
Another way to overcome fear is to set realistic goals. Your goals should be realistic and approachable.
Some people set huge goals and begin to fear not completing them. It causes procrastination and finally, no growth. So you should motivate yourself by breaking your large goals into shorter achievable millstones. That way, you feel more encouraged to keep pushing for success.
To get things done well, you must put in the effort. You experiment a little bit more each time to see if it improves or worsens, then you make another tweak and re-evaluate. Keep trying to learn something each time you do something.
Discover solace and confidence in ensuring that every failure—no matter how big or small—is not a roadblock. Instead, it serves as a stepping stone that brings you closer to the life you want.
To help with your fear of failure, especially in that business, it will be wise to write out a checklist of the things you fear in your business. This means you should write down what you are afraid to do and why you are afraid to do it.
This will help you know what the fear is all about and how to tackle it.
You see, admitting that you have fear of failure and working towards overcoming it is better than living in denial.
The signs of fear of failure are obvious. You need to be true to yourself so you know how best to deal with it.
Whatever gets you scared makes you angry, and the angrier you get, the more you suffer because you can't break free.
Imagine being afraid to take risks and grab business opportunities versus you being afraid to fail. You become angry when you see other business leaders and entrepreneurs thriving. To make it more painful, imagine if these entrepreneurs started with you or before you.
Seeing others grow while you are stuck in one position is enough to make you resentful and angry. Sadly, you end up taking out your anger on yourself, your employees, or your family.
Anger never solves anything unless you turn the energy into working hard and aiming for higher results.
The more you indulge those fears, the more power you give them, and the more they hold you down and stop you from being who you are meant to be.
Instead of letting anger or fear control you, learn to turn your negative “what ifs” into positive “what ifs”. For example, turn:
- “What if I don't make it” to “What if I make it and it turns out well”
- “What if I lose too much” to “What if I gain more and improve my current situation”
- “What if I fail” to “What if I learn from the lessons of my failure and become even better”
- “What if people will laugh at me” to “What if people learn from my story and feel encouraged”
For every negative thought or “what if”, there are positive ones too. Be positive and control your life. There is no point in being resentful towards yourself or other successful people when you have the power to achieve your own success.
Try and fail. Make adjustments and try again. Thomas Eddison once said, “I did not fail. I just found 99 ways that don't work”. The more you fail, the more you learn. As you keep learning, you become wiser and better.
Imagine having an incredible tech startup idea but you are too scared to launch it or present it to people because you are scared of their rejection. What do you think will happen?
That idea will vapourize into thin air, never to be seen by anybody.
Never stop trying until you have success in your hands. The fear of failing can get in the way of your learning process. It is safe to say that he, who has never failed, knows nothing.
Let go of that fear of failing by embracing it. Yes, accept the failure, welcome and if possible, anticipate it. This will help reduce the impact and weight on your emotional health.
Instead of allowing your fear of failure to stop you from trying new things and taking action, let it be your success motivation. Let it be the reason you keep pushing hard and taking risks. Let it fuel the hunger for success – the fear of being a failure in life.
If you feel your goals are too big for the current you to handle, then you need to work on yourself to become the ideal person fit for the goal. This means you need to work on your personal development.
Working and becoming a better version of yourself. The more you grow and you look back to see how far you have come, you'll feel proud of yourself.
- Sharpen your mind with the best business books
- Work on your growth mindset
- Practice your leadership skills
- Build your entrepreneurial skills
- Meditate on personal development quotes
As you grow and work on your goals, you will see more possibilities for achieving those goals.
Many people give up before they even see the start line. Fear's handiwork is such that it prevents you from taking any step. Think about the opportunities that you will miss if you let your fear stop you.
Are you aware that failure can help you discover your strength? The greatest threat to your dream is not the failure you anticipate but instead the fear of taking a step.
To overcome the fear, you can learn to move forward slowly but steadily. If the big picture overwhelms you, try taking it slow and see how you go from there.
Nobody likes being wrong or people judging them. Sometimes, you judge yourself, and this takes a toll on your creative life. Do people's opinions entirely matter? I don't think so.
Taking risks is vital to get from where you are to where you want to go. The risk includes the fear of being wrong. Who knows, what if you are right? What if your idea is a brilliant one? Take your creative life to its peak by not disregarding any ideas of feeling anyone is terrible. There is a place for every idea.
The fear of weakness in that business venture keeps you from putting in your all and stops you from opening new horizons in such a business.
Running a business is not easy. It comes with its ups and downs. One moment, you are winning. Then the next moment, it looks like you are losing. The roller coaster ride can be very overwhelming. But this is why you need a mentor to guide you.
A business mentor knows what it means to run a business and can guide you in doing so. When finding a business mentor, get one who is concerned about your growth.
A business mentor can help you see business opportunities and encourage you to be bold enough to take risks.
Break this weakness by taking a step, irrespective of how stupid it may sound or look.
The pains of failing may last only for a while. But quitting hits differently. It is permanent.
Quitting your business means giving up a huge part of your life. Before you ever quit, ask yourself if it is worth it. Also, ask yourself if you are just acting out of strong emotions of frustration.
If you are acting out of strong emotions, I'm sorry to say that you are making a very big mistake. When the emotions wear off, you will start regretting your actions.
Whenever you feel like giving up on your business, meditate on these never-give-up quotes to inspire you to continue your success journey.
In an uncertain and ever-changing world, you can't avoid risks. By attempting to cut risk, you cannot escape failure. Simply put, you won't succeed in the endeavor, lowering your odds.
Since so many successful business people fail before or after, learning from failure is a fundamental principle of entrepreneurship. Failure is not what separates a terrible entrepreneur from a good one. It's whether you let it sink you or teach you.
There's always a Plan A, B, and multiple plans. Knowing that the first plan didn't work and resulted in failure means one strategy out of a multitude. You are left with numerous options to try out and see if it lands you success or not.
Make contingency plans. Never rely on just one business idea, have several others of several forms of that one. Have something to fall back on when what you have doesn't work as planned.
Criticisms are people's views and opinions of things. Their views can be wrong or right. It is important you know there are chances that people can be wrong. So, basing your success on people's opinions and criticisms is unfair and cruel to you.
You must also be able to distinguish between destructive criticism and constructive criticism. Constructive criticism can help your concept and sometimes place you on the map of success. But destructive criticism is set to tarnish your self-image.
Know which criticism you are facing, and learn which to apply. No matter what people say, what you believe is what counts.
Failure allows us to bounce back, learn from our mistakes, and helps us appreciate success. When it happens, it requires us to pause what we're doing for a little while.
However, this pause gives us the perfect opportunity for reflection and thought, enabling us to assess our path.
Failure teaches us to value achievement and appreciate what we have.
One hit doesn't mean you are out of the game. You can still get back up and move again. Real failures are people who run away after a single defeat. They become too scared to try again and eventually give up.
There will inevitably be some setbacks in the future. Never give up trying. To reach your goals, keep up the excellent effort. You will soon be able to reap the rewards of all your labor.
Mistakes are a chance to learn. Yes, it may take time, but they are filled with experiences at the expense of your dreams. Mistakes from experiences are there to be your teachers and guides. Although it is a slow process, they are the best. Allow yourself to go through the process.
You need to be resilient. Resilience is an important life skill every entrepreneur must have. You cannot be an entrepreneur and not know how to bounce back when challenges hit you down.
Build up your resilience level and lace it up with hard work. I promise you, you'll be indestructible.
When you fail, you don't remain on the floor; you build on the failures. Don't beat yourself up for your mistakes or hate yourself for what you did. If all successful people hated themselves for their mistakes, there would be no success today.
Allow bygones to be bygones and move one. Instead of brooding on the mistakes, plan for the next course of action. Make plans for the next concept; you can start work on your contingency plans here.
There's a chance that if we succeed at everything we do, we become arrogant and lack basic skills that make up a human such as responsibilities. More significantly, we wouldn't learn if there were no failures.
See failures as platforms for learning and attaining responsibilities and ‘sense.'
Keep trying and do not give up. Life is about making mistakes, failing, and learning from them. Considering what you could have done better or differently, or altering your approach. All of this could result in your tremendous success.
If you are striving to accomplish a goal or objective, never give up, and never listen to someone who says it won't work.
Learn from every mistake because every experience and encounter, particularly your mistakes, will teach you and force you into being more of who you are.
Every failure and mistake is for a purpose you will only know when you try. They are there to turn you into a better person or an advanced version of yourself.
You often can't eliminate your fear, but you can embrace, accept and use it to your advantage. To conquer this fear, do the following:
- Discover why fear is so powerful
- Face them, stop avoiding them, and it's high time you confront those fears.
- Embrace the fears by actively seeking them out. You can write them down.
- Harness your fears by reflecting on those dreams; create goals worth pursuing and work towards them.
Use These Fear of Failure Quotes To Overcome Entrepreneurial Fear
Failure is just a step in our journey rather than the end. It even permits us to question ourselves when it's essential, which advances us if it crosses our path, and we can learn the necessary lessons from it.
You can encourage your team members, employees, and colleagues with these quotes. Whenever you feel overwhelmed with fear, take some timeout and focus on these incredible fear of failure quotes.
These quotes contain important lessons that will encourage you and show you what to do.