In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. But make no mistake; failure is the first step towards success, as per the title of my second book. Erik Erickson described human development as a series of stages, each focused on achieving success in a different aspect of life. In order to achieve success, though, it is often necessary to first experience failure; hard-learned lessons are generally required.

There is a general assumption that those who have a strong desire for success may actually be suffering from a fear of failure. This hypothesis makes a lot of sense, as achieving success by definition is the opposite of failure. Entrepreneurs are success seekers and they typically go out of their way, taking uncalculated risks to achieve their success.

Both fear of failure and fear of success tend to respond well to treatment. Cognitive behavioural techniques are often used to help you learn new ways of thinking about your choices. If the fear is motivated by a feeling of not being in control of your own life, then exercises may be prescribed in which you are encouraged to make decisions independently. You will realize that for every failure, there is an alternative course of action that can be easily identified and acted upon.

Fear of failure is a complicated condition that can prevent sufferers from achieving their full potential. With professional help both conditions can be successfully overcome. As an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) practitioner, I have been able to help several of my clients overcome many success impeding phobias.