Overcome the Fear of Failure

Musicians live in perpetual fear of bombing on stage. Over half of U.S. households have at least one member who can play a musical instrument, but only a small fraction ever perform in public, in front of a crowd, getting booed, getting bottles thrown at your head. No thanks! It’s no surprise that so few people who can play an instrument will actually do so in front of strangers. According to research recently published in Psychology Today, the higher a person’s fear of failure is, the more statistically likely they are to procrastinate and fail to take action.

Like everyone else, a rock star has to start out as an unknown. They have to take risks. They have to overcome the fear of failure in order to get out on that stage the ?rst time and they have to ?nd the courage to keep going out even if the worst happens. Would you boo Prince off the stage? Audiences did when he was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.

According to a Harvard business study, “failure is actually the norm” for most ventures. 70-80% don’t see sufficient return on investments; 90—95% make projections that they subsequently don’t meet; and 30-40% of start-ups fail entirely.

The lesson here is that every venture and every person experiences failure at some point. What matters is what you choose to do about it.