Yes, in fact, I’m going to go as far to say that starting ANY business is like riding a bike! :-)

Ok, maybe I’d better explain myself! I missed out one important word in that last sentence; the word ‘learning’. Amazing how one word could make so much difference? Actually, not that amazing as it’s often the case that the little things make the biggest difference, or else we wouldn’t have such things as the universally accepted 80/20 rule, but that’s another discussion.

The sentence should have read: “Starting A Business Is Like Learning To Ride A Bike”

But had I put that as the headline, it wouldn’t have looked so enticing would it? You also might not be reading this right now, and I wanted you to read this as despite my frivolous beginning,  I do actually have something quite important to say about the subject of building a business:

Let me start by telling you a story, which may not seem that relevant at first, but bear with me because you’ll see the relevance and perhaps identify with it too…

My eldest Son, has been learning to ride his bike for some time now. Like all children he started off with ‘stabilisers’ (those trainer wheels that attach to the rear of the bike to keep it upright – see picture for demonstration! ;-) and has now come to the stage where he wants to be able to ride his bike without the stabilisers.

All pretty non-eventful until we come to removing the stabilisers when all the problems start…

The problems actually started after he fell off on this first attempt, and grazed his knee. Not too much of a problem except that this now seemed to make him very nervous about riding on tarmac and of falling off again. No problem, we’ll switch to the grass where he perceives the danger of hurting himself to be lessened by the fact that he would have a softer landing on grass than on concrete or tarmac.

However, after the inevitable number of falls that are expected when learning to ride a bike, fear begins to set in to the point where he starts to make backwards steps. As a result, he falls off more and the problem is compounded. Now don’t get me wrong, the falling off usually consists of my catching him before he actually hits the ground, but nevertheless this starts to affect his progress.

Those of you who are parents and have gone through this process before will know, that the best technique is to let the child think that you are still holding them upright until they realise that you weren’t holding them at all and in fact they can ride the bike. In this case, the fear of falling off was causing my Son to lean the bike to one side so that he could put his foot on the ground should he begin to fall. Of course, this actually instigated the fall and hence we started to make backward progress as a result…

Now you might be sitting there thinking, ‘Ok Simon, very nice story, but what has this got to do with business?’

Good question, and one that I will gladly answer!

It became obvious to me that the fear of falling was actually hindering my Son’s progress in being able to ride his bike on two wheels. This fear had developed because of experience and although logic would say that he fell off because he hadn’t had enough practice, the fear of falling off was paramount.

In business, I see many people sabotage their own success because of their fear of failure. Yes, they may have been ‘burned’ in the past, and have ‘good reason’ to be cautious because they now ‘can’t afford for it not to work again’, but the irony is that their fear will ensure their failure and further exacerbate the problem.

Rather than having the courage to steer their business towards growth, the fear becomes bigger than the benefit or the opportunity and they unknowingly steer their business towards failure.

Many will look at how few people actually succeed and use that as an excuse for failing. Notice I said ‘excuse’ and NOT ‘reason’?!

Like the child who is unable to see that virtually everyone on the planet goes through the same ‘failures’ when learning to ride a bike, before succeeding; many business owners do not realise how close they often are to succeeding before they quit.

I’m sure that most children, if they were not shown how to ride a bike may not ever work it out for themselves. Similarly, too many home business owners struggle on in isolation, never seeking advice, purchasing training or taking coaching to build their business successfully.

What stops them from doing this?

FEAR! Fear of failure is the biggest killer of business success, yet many do not even realise it whilst they obsess over making excuses for failing before they have even failed.

To really succeed in business, you have to believe that you will succeed. Yes, you have to know what you’re doing, but there are many people that would know what they are doing if they were to actually take action. I’m talking about the same people that buy training course after training course and attend seminar after seminar, yet never do anything with their knowledge. Knowledge is useless without action, yet action and belief will drive you to acquire knowledge as and when you need it.

Maybe, the title of this post needs to be changed again. Maybe it should read, “Starting A Home Based Business Should Be Like Learning To Ride A Bike”. I say that because every child is wise enough to know that they need help from their parents, and will have the necessary belief instilled in them by their mentors/parents that they will succeed, yet somehow we lose the same ability to believe in ourselves as we become adults.

Become a child again, and have belief because belief is the best antidote to fear!

To your success!

Simon Guilliard

Enter Your Details To The Right To Learn About The System and Platform That I Use:





Other Blogs Like This

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • BlogMemes Sp
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Twitthis
  • blogmarks
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • RSS
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati