Overcoming Fear of Letting People Down

Regarding family, employees, friends, investors & clients

This is Founders Club - a supportive community for remarkable founders & CEOs focused on personal & business growth.

Each week, we give you tools to overcome common founder struggles and build founder resilience.

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Fighting Fear of Letting People Down

Welcome back to our series on Fighting Fear of Failure.

In case you missed them, check out previous newsletters on

Overcoming Fears of:

This week we’re focusing on Fighting Fear of Letting People Down.

Fear of Letting People Down is a fear of putting people who depend on us in worse circumstances or failing to deliver promised rewards.

Typically, this fear is associated with:

  • family

  • employees

  • friends (who invested in your biz)

  • investors

  • clients

When we fear something, we often fear the worst case scenarios because it feels like there is no way out of them.

We are here to show you that even worst case scenarios can be solved for and are often not as scary as they might seem.

Let’s solve for these one by one:

Family

Worst case scenarios:

  1. You won’t reach business revenue that enables you to provide for your family

  2. Your successful business will go out of business and you will not be able to provide for your family any longer

Things to know & do:

1. You can get a part / full-time job

Most founders get a part or full-time job at least once while running their business.

If you’re not yet at a point where your business can support you or are experiencing unstable revenue, look into getting a job.

As a founder, you typically bring diverse and unique expertise highly valued by employers.

A job may enable you to:

  • feel more safe and emotionally stable

  • have freedom to think in longer terms

  • make a more weighted decision about the future of your business

2. You can collect unemployment benefits

In case your business shuts down and you do not have another job lined up, you can rely on unemployment benefits to support your life.

 

3. Discuss your financial struggles with your partner / family

Founders tend to conceal financial struggles from their partner/family to reduce stress and shame.

As uncomfortable as it may be, it’s better to discuss financial struggles when you have months of runway rather than a day.

Discuss potential options:

  • What business and personal expenses can you cut down on?

  • Can you fundraise?

  • Can your partner support you for some time?

  • Can your family give you an interest-free loan?

  • Can you borrow from your friends?

  • Can you take a part/full time job?

  • Can you sell any stocks?

  • Can you max out your credit card?

  • How much of your lifestyle could unemployment benefits support?

Depending on your answers to above devise a plan with a clear timeline to act upon if push comes to shove.

Employees

Employees can feel like a business family.

Founders often feel responsible both for the lives of our employees and the employees’ families.

That’s a heavy load to carry.

Worst case: You have to lay off people

It’s tough to let people go, especially when it’s due to the company’s financials and not the employees’ poor performance.

Things to know:

1. Your employees will get another job

2. You can help them find a job by making introductions to your network

You may even be able to get a referral fee.

3. Your employees likely have savings for this type of rainy day

4. Employees can collect unemployment benefits to support themselves while searching for another job 

Friends

Your friends likely gave you money because they love you and wanted to support you.

They also likely gave you a sum that they were comfortable never seeing again.

Obviously, you should do your best to return the funds.

If you won’t be able to for some time, have a conversation with your friends to set realistic expectations.

Here are 2 most common outcomes of this convo:

1. Your friends tell you not to worry about it

They do not expect to get the money back.

 2. Repayment plan 

Make an agreement to repay the funds in chunks when you land on your feet again (e.g. 3 months after you land a job)

Investors

Worst case: Your company fails and is unable to return the funds to investors

Things to know:

1. Investors know the risks of investing

They understand that investing caries risk of losing all of the invested capital.

They wouldn’t invest if they didn’t have the risk tolerance for such an outcome.

2. Up to 90% of startups fail

While you should do your best to provide a return for your investors, many startups won’t be able to, it’s a fact of startup life.

3. VC investors are typically among the first to get remnants of your company

VCs tend to hold preferred stock and get repaid before common shareholders in case of liquidation.

VCs may have rights that entitle them to receive a fixed amount or a percentage of the liquidation proceeds before common shareholders.

As a founder, you tend to be the last on the list of distributions and sadly may not get anything at all.

Know that you are giving all that you can to everyone else, including investors, before taking anything for yourself.

Clients

If possible, try to complete the product / service your clients paid for.

Worst case: You are not able to deliver the product / service

Things to do:

1. Communicate with the client proactively

Apologize for the inability to deliver the work, explain the circumstances and propose a course of action to salvage the situation.

2. Reimburse if possible

If you’re able to, reimburse the client for the undelivered work.

3. Refer to your best competitor

It’s unlikely that you are the only company on the market providing your product / service.

By referring your client to a respected competitor you demonstrate that you care about the client’s needs being met, even if you can’t be the one to benefit.

The client will get their needs met, the client and the competitor will appreciate the referral and you might get a referral bonus.

Disclaimer: This newsletter is not written by a financial nor medical professional and does not provide financial nor medical advice. It is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for professional financial, medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.

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Can’t wait to see you overcome your fears!
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