Many great entrepreneurs never get to the finish line.

They’re paralyzed by various fears. The fear of failing, the fear of success, the fear of trying, the fear of rejection, the fear of losing money and so on and so forth.

But if you keep yourself in those chains, you will sabotage yourself and hurt your goals.

As an entrepreneur, you need every edge you can get to make it to the next level. And if you surrender to yourself and to your beliefs, you won’t make it. In fact, tackling fear is perhaps one of the most important business decisions you will ever make.

And one of the best ways to free yourself of fear is to test the assumptions you have about what scares you.

So let’s delve right in and explore this method.

1. Fear Not

Fear is triggered by the belief that a certain event or events are likely to cause pain.

In the context of business, people fear investing their time and money in startups because there is a possibility for them to lose that investment. Accordingly, fear restrains them from taking what might have been the wrong action and thus guards them from the possibility of having to experience unnecessary pain.

And it’s not unjustified for them to think that way. In fact, starting a business and trying to get it off the ground is a time of tremendous uncertainty. It’s a transition into a whole new paradigm of earning money. It’s also a transition into a relatively new area of buying and selling and into a new market of clients and services.

So I am with you. You are right to think that business is scary.

But you will do yourself no good if your psychology is dominated by unjustified fears. People tend to hold false assumptions about the business process and their decision are all too often a product of such bad assumptions.

I’ve also found that people are more likely to have these assumptions when they’re watching the game for afar. But if you want to play the game, then you need to get on the field.

So let’s look at some of the typical false beliefs that entrepreneurs hold and how such beliefs generate unjustified and irrational fears.

1. Starting a business takes hard work. What if after 6 months of hard work nothing comes out of it?
2. What is my partner, friends, family, and the people I respect will think of me if I fail?
3. I worked long hours to earn this money. If I invest it into this business and it fails, then I will have lost what I spent years saving in a matter of months. Maybe it’s better to be safe than sorry.
4. There are all these big companies around and they have teams and departments for every little thing. How am I going to compete with them on my own?
5. There’s always more to learn about this business. I am not sure I have what it takes to learn it all so quickly and turn this information into practice. Maybe I should hire someone? But what if I can’t pay that person on time and what if that person turns out to be a crook?
6. I need to make a lot of phone calls. I’ve never been that great at selling myself or my products over the phone. Making 10 cold phone calls a day is nerve racking. I don’t know if this business is right for me. Business shouldn’t be that uncomfortable.

Most of these fears are based on generalized assumptions about business and how hard it can be to take action and get good results. But again these are untested assumptions and it’s unwise for you to follow a thought and believe it in the absence of evidence and data.

I recommend that you begin by inquiring further into why you hold such assumptions. Begin by asking yourself why. For example,

1. Why am I experiencing this fear?
2. Why am I over/underestimating how hard it is to market my product?
3. Why am I over/underestimating how difficult it is to launch a new business?

When you ask these questions, you will most likely find that your fears are not based on hard data. And it’s a good start for you to not believe anything that’s not based on hard numbers.

2. Gradual Exposure to Fear

Now that you’ve identified your fear and you have begun to test the assumptions you have about your business, you now have to confront it.

So if you’re afraid of making cold phone calls, then you to take the right steps to help you become comfortable with making phone calls.

Begin by educating yourself. So buy a tutorial on how to speak with customers over the phone. Read a book about it. Practice with a friend. Get comfortable with the idea.

Approaching your fear with a plan will significantly reduce your fear. When you’re prepared, you’re less likely to let fear overwhelm you and cause you to quit.

I would suggest to you that confronting fear isn’t about throwing yourself in the “danger” zone without a plan. If you do so, you will only intensify the fear. Think gradual. Think about taking a step forward and see if you’re able to change how you feel and how you perceive what’s scaring you.

3. Fear is Contagious

If you’re surrounded by people who are fearful, then you will probably become fearful as well. Their energy will transfer over to you and it will affect your decision making process.

Fearful people and fearful friends will complicate an otherwise clear picture of the facts at hand. They will give more weight to certain factors than what is required. They will perhaps draw conclusions that are entirely based on the fear they have, and they will skew your perception of the likelihood of success.

Moreover, if you take these people’s opinions seriously you will end up allocating your time and resources to determine if the factors they speak about are in fact a real threat to your business.

Such situations can downplay your momentum and throw you in matrix of indecision. That’s the last thing you need. So identify these people, and try to reduce their role in your business as much as possible and if necessary find ways to end your partnership with them and go your own path.