💪 Fight Fear of Disappointing Others

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In today’s issue:

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• Fighting Fear of Disappointing Others 

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Solving for Founder Fears

Disappointing others seems to be the 2nd most common fear among founders & CEOs.

Did you just feel the weight of this fear?

Let’s alleviate it together👇️ 

Welcome back to our series on Fighting Fear of Failure for Entrepreneurs, Founders & CEOs.

In case you missed them, check out previous newsletters on:

• Overcoming Fear of Uncertainty & Decrease Self-Worth 

• Overcoming Fear of “What will Other People Think”

Fighting Fear of Disappointing Others

After many conversations with entrepreneurs, we noticed that this fear is split into 2 categories:

1. Fear of Disappointing People - fear of loosing or never gaining the respect of people whose approval we seek.

   Typically associated with family members and people we look up to.

2. Fear of Letting People Down - fear of putting people who depend on us in worse circumstances or failing to deliver promised rewards.
   
   Typically associated with family, employees, clients, friends (who invested in your biz) and investors.

While you may experience both, solving for them is different so we’ll be addressing them separately.

This issue - Fighting Fear of Disappointing Others.

Next issue - Fear of Letting People Down.

Fear of Disappointing Others

We usually fear disappointing those whose approval we seek.

These people tend to be family members or people we look up to.

3 thing to do to alleviate this fear:

1.Have a candid conversation with the people you’re afraid to disappoint

Chances are, they are incredibly proud of you.

They likely understand that entrepreneurship is a hard, uncertain journey and not everyone has the guts to do it.

You do, and that’s something to be proud of.

They also likely understand that any company can fail.

If it does, they are not going to be disappointed, but rather proud that you tried.

When you have the conversation, include:

• Why this business is important to you

• What makes this a great opportunity

• Your goals

• Timelines for the above goals

• What you’re going to do in case you can’t reach the above goals in the given timeline

Framing the conversation around goals, timelines and a back-up plan gives the listener assurance that you’ve thought it through and will be fine even if things don’t go as planned.

In the end your family just wants to know that you’ll be fine.

Story time: My conversation with my dad

As many daughters are, I was fearful of disappointing my dad.

I would never tell him when anything went wrong cause I thought he would sigh in disappointment.

One day, I braved up and told him that I was having a really hard time and wasn’t sure in which direction my business would go (and possibly into the ground).

I was expecting to hear that sigh of disappointment.

Instead, I heard:

(Ngl, tearing up just writing about this)

It was such a relief to hear this.

It also created the space for us to have more vulnerable conversations.

He now shares his struggles and we troubleshoot together.

Of course, people are different.

Sadly, not everyone will react in a supportive way.

For these cases see the next point.

2. Accept that some people choose to be disappointed no matter what

You can’t please everyone.

Some may default to disappointment regardless of what marvels you achieve.

This default disappointment is rooted in who they are as a person and has little to do with your actions.

If gaining someone’s respect is an impossible task, focus your attention on respecting your own efforts.

3. Do everything not to disappoint yourself

We often seek other people’s approval when we lack our own.

Focus on gaining your own self-respect.

Create a clear, time-based plan for your company.

Give it 110%.

Stay disciplined and consistent.

Make yourself proud!

If the business fails, you’ll know that you gave it your all. Having this assurance helps feel proud for trying, accept that the business wasn’t viable and move onto the next chapter of your life.

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