Are You Afraid of Success?

Author’s Note: This is part 1 of the Overcoming the Fear of Success series. A heartfelt thanks to Ann Evanston of Warrior-Preneur.com, who suggested a topic for this series.

As entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time and energy preparing for failure. We buy insurance policies to brace ourselves financially, and seek business mentoring to brace ourselves mentally. But for many entrepreneurs, fear of failure is not the problem.

In fact, it’s just the opposite: even daring entrepreneurs who laugh in the face of failure often wind up sabotaging themselves due to a fear of success.

Why Success Can Be Scary Sometimes

I know, it sounds absurd. Who would be afraid of success?

So let me ask you this: have you ever really thought about the consequences of success? I use the word “consequences” for a reason – because success isn’t all about big money, fast cars, and luxury lifestyles. When you get right down to it, being enormously successful can actually be pretty scary.

Let me share with you a few reasons why.

1. Success means change. Success is more than the balance of your bank account – it’s a lifestyle; a set of habits and skills that you learn and develop over a lifetime. For an entrepreneur, becoming successful may force you to change many things: your habits, your job, your education, even your entire personality. And that can be scary.

2. Success has a mind of its own. Many of the most successful people today are in careers they never planned to pursue. When opportunity comes knocking, it may not come in the form or field you expect. You may have to learn things that you never thought you needed to know and overcome obstacles you never thought existed. It takes a lot of courage to pursue these unexpected opportunities.

3. Success is hard work. Success might make you rich, but it doesn’t allow you to be lazy. If anything, being successful will force you to work harder than you ever did before. In my experience, the more opportunities open up to you, the more work will be demanded of you in return. Are you willing to make that trade?

4. Success is a commitment. In some ways, success ties you down to a single commitment. When you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur, you have an enormous number of paths to choose from – but when one of those paths really starts to pay off, it locks you in for the long haul. It’s not an easy commitment to make.

5. Success doesn’t have a finish line. Success is a never-ending process. You don’t wake up one day and say “Well, that’s it. I am now certifiably successful. Job well done, time to go home.” Success is something you have to nurture through time, money, and sustained effort. And there’s no finish line -  there will always be a way to improve or another opportunity to pursue.

6. Success is different for everyone. There’s no such thing as a universal path to success. Your life and your future as an entrepreneur depends on a million factors – many of which you can’t control. Having a business mentor is wonderful, but at the end of the day, you will need to make the difficult decisions on your own.

By now you’re probably thinking that I’m being way too negative. So let me clarify: I’m not arguing that success is a bad thing. I love success, I admire successful people, and I want to be an extremely successful entrepreneur. (I’ve also used the word success far too many times in this post.)

But I also want to be realistic. The reality is, success is sweet, but it isn’t all sunshine and roses. Success comes with a lot of strings. If you’re not prepared for the responsibilities and consequences of getting that big break, then you might lose out on a golden opportunity without ever knowing it.

3 Signs that Fear of Success is Holding You Back

Is a fear of success sabotaging your potential as an entrepreneur? Is it affecting your business decisions? Here are a few signs that the answer could be yes.

1. You’re afraid to delegate. Honestly, learning to delegate was one of the toughest challenges I face upon becoming a manager for the first time. I get very attached to my work, and it’s very difficult for me to trust someone else with even a small part of that work. I learned my lesson the hard way – taking on way too many things personally until I simply couldn’t handle any more.  The moral? Being successful requires you to interact with and put your trust in other people.

2. You’re afraid to let go. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, you might not make any real money until you sell your business. But it’s hard to let go of a company or idea that you’ve nurtured from day one – it’s like watching a child grow up and leave the nest. Part of being a successful entrepreneur is knowing when it’s time to let go of one project and move on to the next.

3. You’re afraid to adapt. As your business grows and changes, you must grow and change with it. In the beginning, you might be involved in every last detail of your start-up (and love every minute of it), but eventually you’ll have to take on new roles and shed some old ones. It’s just part and parcel of the entrepreneurial journey. For an entrepreneur, success means learning new things, taking on new responsibilities, and (hardest of all) giving up the old ones.

Part 1 Recap

In this article, I explained the “fear of success” and listed some of the main reasons why success can be scary for entrepreneurs. I also gave you a few examples of how a fear of success could be sabotaging your growth as an entrepreneur.

As always, please do give me your feedback. Did you find this article helpful? Thought-provoking? Did you like it or hate it? Do you have any suggestions to make or information to add? Let me know by leaving a comment!

In the next article, I’ll show you why it’s so important that you approach success as a process. Thanks for reading!

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