By its nature, entrepreneurship can be a risky venture. It involves committing time, money, and resources to a business idea in hopes of achieving a profit. As every successful business owner experiences at some point in growing their business, destructive doubt can creep in and sidetrack even the most experienced entrepreneur.
Destructive doubt creeps in when you allow the in-the-moment circumstances to affect your commitment to your contribution in the world. With destructive doubt in your head, you start to play the commitment game. It might sound like this:
- I want more business, but I don’t have time to hire anyone else.
- It’s better to have a substandard performing employee than to take the time to hire someone else.
- I want to have a bigger business, but I want more freedom in my life.
- Maybe I shouldn’t start X because I don’t know if I can be successful.
You make assumptions. You assume creating something better or bigger will mean a loss somewhere else. You assume that a substandard performing employee is unable to do the job, so you start telling him what to do, rather than clarifying objectives, coaching, and training him.
This struggle on the inside, will always cause a ripple effect on the outside. It will show up in the mismatch of business you attract or don’t attract, misaligned marketing messages, employee disengagement, and delayed results.
If you’re building something from destructive doubt, your competing commitments cause you to spend a great deal of energy attempting to satisfy each. Managing your business in this cloud of ambiguity is frustrating for you and confusing to your customers and your team.
As a leader, you experience a loss of personal power when you allow yourself to take action on the destructive doubt rather than on the contribution. These inner doubts create inner conflict. Inner conflict creates stress. Stress will amplify your biological wiring.
Your wiring affects the way you engage in idea generation, process thought, the environment in which you best thrive, and the amount of information you need for effective decision making. It can also trigger an impulse response that may be counterproductive.
If you’re wired to be commanding under pressure and have a destructive doubt that you can’t trust your employees, then your actions will follow suit.
The key is to create awareness on what you are committed to. What commitment will you make today to cast aside destructive doubt and take action consistent with your contribution in the world?
P.S. Let’s scale your business this year at the Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp for Business Owners on April 27-28, 2017.
We’ll dive into the framework that causes you to align all of your business management systems together in a way that brings in pre-qualified leads, strengthens your business processes, and aligns your environment with how you and your team naturally execute. LEARN MORE