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I was walking around the block just a few moments ago, in lieu of actually getting real work done, and my big toe started to twinge. The big toe on my right foot just felt all jammed up. Kind of making me limp a little bit. As it turns out, I jammed this same toe some 12 years ago, on a 5.11a sport climb in the Obed River (Tennessee) Gorge called (I swear I’m not making this up) “Dick the Impaler,” a couple hundred yards downstream from Tieranny Wall.

I distinctly recall what I was thinking at the crux, about 2/3 of the way up this relatively short route: “Well, the worst that can happen is I’ll take a lead fall.” Curiously, I also recall that I didn’t think I was going to make the move. It’s not that hard a move for a person with longer legs or better reach, but it was just at the limit of my reach, and I decided to dyno.

Glenn Ritter leading Whatsherface (13a)

Well, the lead fall was only 10-12 feet. No big deal. But when I came down, I drop-kicked the planet with my right big toe. The planet, of course, didn’t notice. My right toe was outraged, and jammed itself halfway back to my ankle, or so it felt. It hurt!

A dozen years later, the consequences of my failure remind me every step I take. Bummer.

Would I do it again? Probably.

But I would do it differently. I wouldn’t accept falling as an option and I would trust more in my ability to stick the move.

How does missing a dyno relate to life in general? Let’s take a look at the risk of starting your own business.

Fear exists for good reason

Much is made in the self-help, self-development and entrepreneurship enterprises about fear “holding you back” from your dreams… that if only you “conquered your fear,” magically, success would rush to your door in a fanfare of thunder and applause.

The upside is fame and fortune, security and independence for your family, and the freedom to Do What You Want Whenever You Want.

Why is it so hard?

Because it’s risky.

There is a reason why fear holds us all back: sometimes, there’s real consequences to consider.

Perhaps these consequences are (much) less than they seem at the time, but risk does induce fear. Risk is supposed to induce fear.

Being an entrepreneur is risky

There are many aspects of being an entrepreneur that are risky. Financial risk is probably the most obvious: failure means being broke, and maybe poor (there’s a difference), and that’s not much of an option for a lot of people. But there’s the social risk too, and I suspect the social risk of failure is as (probably more) powerful than the financial risk. Most people (90%) aren’t entrepreneurially minded, so as an entrepreneur, you have to develop the capability to operate without an “emotional safety net.”

Now, many people will do risky things while employed at one job, figuring that they can just go get another job if it all goes pear-shaped.

But what do you do as an entrepreneur when it all goes horribly wrong? Get a job? FAIL!

This is a serious business, as it requires an astounding amount of emotional energy to succeed in anything. Yet wrapping one’s identity around being “successful” is almost guaranteed to induce long term misery (ask me how I know).

Build big successes from small successes

In “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem,” Nathaniel Branden asserts that a cornerstone of building self-esteem is measurable accomplishment. He further provides concrete advice on exactly how to accomplish measurably. As it turns out, his suggestions are excellent recommendations for new entrepreneurs: start small, and build what you can measure and touch.

For example, if you’re learning how to build a successful web-based business, you’ll need to master skills for building traffic, and for converting (selling) visitors. These skills can be mastered more or less independently, and it doesn’t really matter which skill you master first. Go with what’s most comfortable. It’s not necessary to actually master these skills either… simply becoming comfortable with the learning process, and having a method for measuring results is enough.

Here’s the success process broken down, stepwise:

• Identify a new skill necessary for achieving long term goal, say acquiring readers is a skill you need to become a top ranked blogger.
• Chunk down the skill into a series of tasks that can be independently acquired, and that produce results. To acquire readers, one must provide content worth reading. Either learn to write, or find people to write for you. In any case, learning to produce content worth reading is a skill worth learning.
• Turn the learning process into result-oriented work. For example, learn to acquire traffic by learning to write articles worth reading.

At each step of this process, you’re successfully producing measurable results, viz. articles on your web site. Once you have the process mastered (which is NOT the same as having the skill mastered), start the process for mastering the next skill necessary for your long term success.

Which leads us to…

Success breeds success

An old saw goes something like “Nothing succeeds like success.”

An obvious tautology… or is it?

Looks what happens when you build your success incrementally: at each stage, you have independent confirmation of competence and success. Suppose you DON’T master the art of closing sales from a web page, yet have insane web traffic because (it turns out) you’re a brilliant writer. In such cases, you have the proven chops to provide real value to a partnership or a joint venture. (Or even an employer…) And as you “breed” your success, your risk of failure starts to decrease, as do the consequences of failure.

Returning to our old saw, it’s probably more accurate to say that past success is a pretty good indicator of future success. Build your successes incrementally, pounding down the fear and loathing at each step.

What’s your experience with fear and consequences? Has your fear helped or hindered your success?