So you’ve figured out what you want to do. You have your brilliant idea ready for the world. You’re ready to launch. And then you start letting doubt creep in.
Don’t worry. I’ve been there, we’ve all been there. We’re great at letting ourselves get in the way of ourselves. The trick, of course, is getting out of your own way. And it all boils down to answering and coming to terms with these two very important questions:
1. What do I need?
Financially – what is this number? What do you need to pay the bills? Pay close attention to the question: “What do I need?” not, “What do I want?” Get it in your head, write it down somewhere. If you were to quit your job, what would you be giving up, and what would you need to break even – or yet, what is the absolute minimum you need to get by?
We have the innate ability to trick ourselves into thinking we need much, much more than we actually do. When you wrap your head around what you really need, you’ll likely find that it’s not that much. Or at least not nearly as much as the number you’re wrestling with as you keep telling yourself quitting your job isn’t possible.
2. What is my worst-case scenario?
How bad can it get? That is the question. And it’s the one that keeps most of the people who want to start their own business from actually doing it. We’re absolutely terrified of failure – and we lead ourselves to believe that failure is equivalent to something life-shattering. But you’re not going to die. You’re not going to end up in a van down by the river. The world isn’t going to hate you.
Would you have to sell your house? Move in with your folks? Get a crummy retail job? What is the absolute worst that can happen? Say it out loud. Tell me. Tell someone. This will be this one thing, once you embrace it, that will set you free – because you’ll realize that the worst may suck, but it’s not the end of the world. You’ll still be okay. You will figure things out.
The worst thing you can do in life is not try. To sit back and wonder. To second-guess yourself to the point of never taking action.
There are plenty of things that hold us back from taking bold leaps. From turning our ideas into reality. From doing what we want to be doing. What we know we should be doing.
But if the only thing holding you back is a thousand bucks and the fear that you might fail. Don’t let it anymore. Life’s too damn short.
Once you throw yourself into the fire, you’ll be surprised at how well you’re able to figure things out.
So the question is, what are you waiting for?