These were the rules and you played the game honorably. Somewhere along the line both the rules and the game changed. Now you’re feeling the pressure of an increasingly hostile corporate environment. In today’s economy companies can disappear in an instant. You can no longer trust that any job will be secure. And you’d rather become an ‘opportunity’ entrepreneur than a ‘necessity’ entrepreneur.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that you create a bullet-proof business plan, get enough investment money … Except that, in the new game, you can only have money if you don’t need it.

This may be a blessing in disguise. Having no investment money may be a huge advantage. The constraints that you are faced with will push you to make key discoveries and decisions that could change the course of your business from ordinary to extraordinary. As you become extraordinary you won’t be the one looking for investors, they’ll be looking for you.

As a successful corporate executive you have other advantages to becoming a successful entrepreneur:

• Previous accomplishments allow you to trust your instincts
• Experience reinforces your business judgement
• You’ve built organizations and created value in spite of constraints
• The net worth you’ve built eliminates short-term financial concerns
• You’ve helped build someone else’s legacy …

Now it’s time to build your own legacy!

Admittedly, a sudden dose of adversity would be a good catalyst to get your entrepreneurial juices flowing. But why wait and become a ‘necessity’ entrepreneur when you could be proactive and become an entrepreneur ‘by design’.

The biggest thing that stops executives from making the transition to entrepreneurship is fear of failure. When fear takes over it drains all the power out of the advantages you had. That’s why the most important step before you work on your business, is to work on yourself.

To Determine the Potential Success of your transition to Entrepreneurship take this short 3 Question Quiz:

Question 1: As a Corporate Executive today, rate your level of CONFIDENCE (1=least; 10=most) in each of these areas:

• a). Significance – who I am
• b). Contribution – what I do
• c). Reward – how much I make

Question 2: As a Corporate Executive today, rate your level of PERSONAL SATISFACTION (1=least; 10=most) in each of these areas:

• a). Significance – who I am
• b). Contribution – what I do
• c). Reward – how much I make

Question3: Imagine that tomorrow you were ‘mergered’ out of the Corporation you have become so much a part of, jobs are scarce at the executive level, and you have to consider entrepreneurship as a ‘default’ strategy. As a new Entrepreneur, rate your CONFIDENCE (1=least; 10=most) in each of these areas:

• a). Significance – who I am
• b). Contribution – what I do
• c). Reward – how much I make

Assess your Potential Success in transitioning to Entrepreneurship. Assessment:

• The difference between Q1 & Q2 is your level of motivation to change.
• The difference between Q1 & Q3 is your potential for failure as an entrepreneur.

Your motivation to change is an important factor. However, no matter how high your motivation to change, you will be continually undermined if the gap measured between Q1 and Q3 is wide. This indicates the gap between your ‘borrowed power’ and your ‘personal power’. The gap that those voices in your head keep warning you about. Unless you can close this gap, your potential for failure as an entrepreneur is very real.

The only way to conquer fear is to have immutable personal power. The focus of a laser coaching session with Susan is to identify unconscious areas where you have relinquished personal power or you have power leaks. These can be likened to hidden profit leaks in a business. Once you identify these areas you can use development processes to rebuild your personal power to levels that far surpass your current levels of confidence. Confidence is the precursor to any successful business endeavor. With this as a platform to launch yourself as an entrepreneur you will be able to make a quantum leap in your success. Before you work in your business … you must work on your business. Before you work on your business … you must work on yourself.

    "How Do I Overcome The Fear of Failure?"

I believe this is the single most critical question to ask, more important than any business strategy.

Unfortunately, it is one I hear less often than questions about strategy or industry trends. And, when it is asked, the superficial responses I’ve heard indicate that no-one really has a grasp on the complexity of this problem.

The usual answers include a list of motivational books or case studies of others who overcame this problem. Success stories of others may certainly motivate you, they may even give you some great ideas, but they will not change the deep down fears that have been installed over your lifetime in your unconscious programming. 

The voices in your head warning you about your potential for failure as an entrepreneur are very real. They are a part of your unconscious programming and a cause of your results.

In the next post we’ll have a short quiz which will help you determine the potential success of your transition to Entrepreneurship. The assessment will look at 2 key aspects:

1. Your level of motivation to change
2. Your personal power leaks (kind of like profit leaks in a business)

Personal power leaks? In a corporate environment these are invisible, and possibly created by your position. They will surface as you make the transition to entrepreneurship. These are the dangers the voices in your head keep warning you about. No matter how high your motivation to change, your potential for success will be undermined by your personal power leaks. That’s why it is important before you work on your business, to work on yourself.