"Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm afraid when I think of things. But if that's not the case, then you will soon be killed by others, because if he is more powerful than you, and even more scared to sleep than you, you will Will be killed by him. So sometimes we have to create crises and challenge ourselves, even if there is no rival in this market."
——Dell (the founder of Dell Computers)
’s fear of entrepreneurial failure is the most commonly encountered by entrepreneurs, but the most difficult to confront others Open mood. Fear of failure not only troubles entrepreneurs, but also potential entrepreneurs. According to the "Global Entrepreneurship Observation (GEM) Report", during the 10 years from 2010 to 2019, although the proportion of entrepreneurial failures in China showed a downward trend, the proportion of entrepreneurs fearing failure continued to rise, rising from 32% in 2010 to 2019 44.7% of the year. Potential entrepreneurs dare not embark on the entrepreneurial journey because of the fear of failure, and entrepreneurs who embark on the entrepreneurial journey have the fear of being "shattered" at any time (Figure 1).
Is the fear of failure a friend or an enemy for entrepreneurs?
In the eyes of most entrepreneurs, the fear of failure is accompanied by high anxiety and depression. In a highly uncertain entrepreneurial environment, entrepreneurs will ride on a "roller coaster" of emotional ups and downs due to fear of failure, and are more likely to be frustrated. Entrepreneurs who have been in a state of fear of failure for a long time may even fall into the trap of "learned helplessness". However, the fear of failure can also be the "friend" of entrepreneurs. For some entrepreneurs, the fear of failure can drive them to persevere amidst difficulties and challenges and keep moving forward.
Fear of failure: born with it, or born with emotion?
Fear of failure is a complicated concept. Although everyone has experienced the fear of failure, is this fear an inherent personal trait, or is it a transient state inspired by experiences? Why are there differences in the sense of fear between people in the face of the same incident? Existing research divides the fear of failure into four categories based on the stage of entrepreneurs and the nature of the fear of failure (Table 1).
First of all, the fear of failure is a stable trait of entrepreneurs, which refers to the entrepreneur's degree of risk aversion (to potential entrepreneurs) or tendency to avoid (incumbent entrepreneurs). This type of fear of failure is usually "innate". Since childhood, entrepreneurs will experience and respond to a series of failure events and their negative results (such as blame, etc.), which leads to the formation of a stable cognitive schema for failure. When facing failure, entrepreneurs will give priority to the corresponding emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses based on the cognitive schema related to the failure. Before starting a business, potential entrepreneurs will feel disgusted by possible business failures, and the degree of disgust will directly affect their entrepreneurial decision-making. After officially starting a business, entrepreneurs are faced with entrepreneurial tasks such as building teams, recruiting employees, designing products, and developing markets. A higher fear of failure will cause entrepreneurs to tend to choose decisions and actions that can avoid failure.
Secondly, the fear of failure is an emotional state of entrepreneurs, which is the entrepreneur's evasive motivation or the evaluation result of the threat of failure. This type of fear of failure is usually "exciting emotions." For potential entrepreneurs, the fear of failure represents their motivation to avoid obstacles in the process of starting a business. For entrepreneurs who have started a business, the fear of failure is manifested in the evaluation results of threats (such as inability to accompany family and friends, and inability to obtain funds) and the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses that result from it.
Figure 1 The trend of China's entrepreneurial failure fear rate from 2010 to 2019
Source: Global Entrepreneurship Watch
Table 1 Types of Fear of Failure
Source: According to Hunter, Jenkins and Mark-Herbert (2021)
In short, the fear of failure stems from the co-shaping of personal traits and situations, which is both inherent and emotional. Cacciotti and other researchers believe that the fear of failure is the negative emotional response of entrepreneurs based on the cognitive assessment of the possibility of failure under the uncertain and vague entrepreneurial environment, which is manifested in the three levels of individual cognition, emotion and behavior.
7 sources of fear of failure
Knowing where the fear of failure comes from is the first step for entrepreneurs to correctly understand the fear of failure. Entrepreneurship is a practice of "both internally and externally". Entrepreneurs not only need to realize the requirements set by themselves, but also need to meet the expectations of various stakeholders. Once entrepreneurship fails, entrepreneurs will inevitably fall into a whirlpool of negative emotions such as guilt, humiliation, and regret. At the same time, external accusations and even abuse may follow one after another. When entrepreneurs perceive the negative results of failure, they will feel fear to varying degrees. The fear of entrepreneurial failure has seven sources, as shown in Table 2.
Personal ability Personal ability refers to the entrepreneur's ability to execute, develop entrepreneurial opportunities or support the development of the enterprise. When there is a large gap between the entrepreneur's own ability level and the ability to perform specific tasks (such as developing products) in the entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurs will have a fear of failure. For example, in an interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur", Qu Fang, the co-founder of Xiaohongshu, said that she had been starting a business with fear. "Every time I see the word'management', my heart will tremble."
Opportunity value Opportunity value refers to the effectiveness, potential and future market space of entrepreneurial opportunities. When entrepreneurs think that there is a problem with the entrepreneurial opportunity they are pursuing, they will feel fear. Sun Mingtao, CEO of Digital China and founder of Goopal Group, once talked about his fears when the blockchain market "blows out": "Faced with the great prosperity presented by the blockchain, I am not happy, even Some fears about the current state of madness.”
Society respects this fear from stakeholders that entrepreneurs consider to be very important, such as investors, business partners, customers, family members, employees, etc. Entrepreneurs hope they can maintain a cooperative relationship with them, or they don’t want to let them down. When stakeholders cannot meet entrepreneurs' needs for social respect, entrepreneurs will feel fear. Netscape’s founder Mark once mentioned during his entrepreneurial process, “I will fire all the employees I recruited carefully, and lose all the money of all investors, and put all those who trust us and cooperate with us. Customers are in danger-whenever they think of this, they feel irritable and it is difficult to concentrate on the countermeasures."
Opportunity Cost Entrepreneurs miss other opportunities due to their pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities, which will also make them fear of failure. Entrepreneurs have to abandon time with family and friends and exercise due to busy entrepreneurial activities, or abandon promising jobs because of choosing to start a business. Once an entrepreneur fails, it means extremely high entrepreneurial costs. Facebook’s vice president Moskowitz once said: “When I first started working on Facebook, I didn’t have time to exercise, my health declined, and anxiety was everywhere. About every six months, my body would break down. , I was only twenty-two years old at that time, which is really crazy."
Once the property safety entrepreneurship fails, it usually means that the entrepreneur loses all or part of his property. The fear of property security comes from entrepreneurs’ worries about their personal financial situation, which is particularly important for entrepreneurs who give up stable jobs and choose to start their own businesses. An executive friend of Xu Xiaoping, the founder of ZhenFund, felt deeply afraid of personal property safety when Xu Xiaoping invited him to resign and join a startup company. He said: "Xiaoping, is there any mistake? I am now at a stable job. , The family is happy and comfortable, you let me put down my "golden rice bowl" and go to such a small startup company, what should I do if it goes bankrupt? Isn’t this deliberately pitting me?”
The fear of financing ability comes from entrepreneurs’ concerns about obtaining start-up capital or business operations Concern about funding possibilities. Different from property security, financing ability emphasizes the concern about the financial status of the enterprise, and it is also the product of the intertwining of the entrepreneurs' concerns about personal ability and the financial status of the enterprise. For example, when JD founder Liu Qiangdong suffered from the 2008 financial crisis, he was afraid of not being able to obtain the operating capital of the company: “The funds that invested in all asked the exact same question: When can you make money? I said that they may not make money for several years. Just say, let’s not talk about it. It’s painful, and there is a sense of fear. My hair turned white in about a month."
Table 2 Sources and examples of fear of failure
Source: According to Cacciotti et al. (2016)
Execution ability The entrepreneur's concern about the company's ability to achieve specific tasks or goals is also an important source of fear of failure. The fear of business execution is similar to the fear of personal ability, but there are significant differences. Business execution fear is more concerned with whether the company itself has the ability to complete tasks, and has nothing to do with the entrepreneur's personal self-worth and social dignity. Wang Jianlin, the founder of Wanda Group, had a fear of failure when faced with the decision of whether the company was internationalized. He bluntly said: "I am particularly afraid of internationalization. Do you think it can be done? The international and domestic cultural systems (differences), (Wanda’s) Can management work?"
Fear of failure: a warning to be born in distress
A moderate fear of failure can effectively promote the development of entrepreneurial activities. Fear of failure signals to entrepreneurs that there are insufficient current entrepreneurial activities, which can remind entrepreneurs to stay vigilant and establish a sense of worry. Fear of failure will motivate entrepreneurs to protect themselves.
In the face of threats, they will be more vigilant, see the hidden information behind the threat of failure, and make more attempts and preparations to avoid failure. After perceiving the threat of failure, entrepreneurs tend to try to develop more diversified products, open up new market channels, develop new services, etc. In addition, the fear of failure can help entrepreneurs shape the company's sense of anxiety and maintain a certain tension throughout the company. On the one hand, it warns employees that they are uncomfortable with the status quo, and on the other hand, it can make them constantly think about new directions for the company's future development within a tight range. From the long-term photos of the huge ship overturned in the office of Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin titled "Why companies fail," to the black swan symbolizing crisis in Huawei's headquarters and various research institutes, all can confirm the warning effect of the fear of failure.
Driven by the fear of failure, entrepreneurs will work harder to promote entrepreneurial activities. There is no doubt that this will increase the probability of entrepreneurial success.
In addition, the fear of failure may also bring the following benefits to entrepreneurs.
Becoming the driver of entrepreneurial efforts, the fear of failure, for some entrepreneurs, is the driving force for their continuous progress. In order to avoid failure, they will try their best to seek entrepreneurial success, thereby increasing their time, energy and effort in entrepreneurial activities. Driven by the fear of failure, entrepreneurs will work harder to promote entrepreneurial activities. There is no doubt that this will increase the probability of entrepreneurial success.
A sense of accomplishment that overcomes the fear of failure Once an entrepreneur overcomes the fear of failure and starts to act, a sense of accomplishment will emerge spontaneously regardless of success or failure. Dare to do things that scare oneself is a challenge for entrepreneurs. In fact, many "dare to try" are the "heart demons" of entrepreneurs, causing entrepreneurs to hesitate on some tasks that could have been accomplished well. Once the entrepreneur overcomes the "heart demon", even if he still has to act with fear, he will experience a stronger sense of accomplishment than success.
"Desire" The other side of the fear coin is the desire for beauty. The fear of failure of entrepreneurs does not come from the imagination of "wrong things", but the fear that they will not be able to realize the mapping of good expectations. Paul Graham, the godfather of the Internet in the United States, once said: "Ambitious ideas may be discouraged by yourself. This is not to say that these ideas are flawed. On the contrary, it can be said to be a manifestation of clear mind." Brain science research shows that it is perceptually threatening. The amygdala and perceptual desire, the beautiful nucleus accumbens is a natural "neighbor." When faced with the threat of failure, the entrepreneur's amygdala will be activated, and at the same time its nucleus accumbens will also respond. The entrepreneur's fear of failure and the desire for success are almost symbiotic. Therefore, the fear of failure is not so terrible. To a certain extent, it is the proof of the entrepreneur's "ambition" and the desire for future success.
Fear of failure: destruction of possible success
Excessive fear of failure often conceals its beneficial side, causing entrepreneurs to lose confidence in themselves and motivation to move forward, deliberately destroying the chances of success that they might have obtained. They will postpone the task at hand to the last minute, or deliberately do not try their best to complete the task. In this way, even in the end, even if they fail, they have an excuse to attribute it to procrastination or lack of preparation, rather than lack of personal ability, so as to protect their self-esteem. Excessive fear of failure makes entrepreneurs deliberately prepare excuses for failure, which also means that entrepreneurs may miss success many times.
In addition, excessive fear of failure may also bring the following disadvantages to entrepreneurs.
"Double Strike" Excessive fear of failure is a double blow to entrepreneurs, both psychologically and physically. Closely accompanied by fear of failure are negative states such as anxiety and burnout. Long-term stress can cause harm to physical health, such as insomnia, gray hair, lack of energy, etc.
The fear of failure in the "ostrich heart" will cause some entrepreneurs to fall into a cage of self-doubt, and escape temporary uneasiness by evading reality. The appearance of the fear of failure sends a signal to entrepreneurs that there is high uncertainty in the future and that it is difficult for them to control the situation. Under the influence of this kind of signal, entrepreneurs will have doubts about their own abilities. Furthermore, they will take it for granted that they encounter difficulties, and are unwilling to actively seek solutions. Instead, they will be in this state of fear by escaping from reality. If things go on like this, entrepreneurs will fall into a vicious circle of "poor performance-acceptance of failure".
"Fake goals" When entrepreneurs are in a state of high fear of failure, they often set low and easy-to-achieve mission goals, which can make them more likely to meet self-set standards and reduce the possibility of others doubting their own value. However, entrepreneurship is like "traveling against the current, if you do not advance, you will retreat." The long-term self-satisfaction goal will also paralyze the entrepreneur's sense of anxiety, and will inevitably be eliminated in the end.
How to reduce the fear of failure
Fear of failure may bring certain benefits to entrepreneurs, but when the level of fear of failure is too high, its benefits will be greatly reduced. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk said: "If fear is irrational, then you should forget it; if fear is rational and the risk is indeed high, then you should overcome it and move on. ." Therefore, learning how to reduce the fear of failure is crucial for entrepreneurs. When faced with the threat of failure, entrepreneurs will make assessments of "Is it worth dealing with (Should I do it?)" and "Can I do it?", and respond accordingly based on the results of the assessment. At this time, we believe that entrepreneurs can reduce the fear of failure through the two paths of "I should" and "I can", and maximize the effectiveness of the fear of failure.
Path 1: "I should" When in a state of high fear of failure, entrepreneurs will temporarily lose their motivation to move forward. One way to alleviate this fear of failure is for entrepreneurs to recognize the sense of responsibility on their shoulders.
The success or failure of a business will not only affect the entrepreneur’s personal property and reputation, but also directly affect the gains and losses of other stakeholders. When entrepreneurs realize that they need or should take action to protect other stakeholders, such as employees, investors, etc., their "should do" motivation is activated. When entrepreneurs face the fear of failure caused by external stimuli such as property security, financing ability, execution ability, etc., they can try to tell themselves, "I can't fall yet, there are still a group of people behind them who need themselves", so as to reduce the uncertainty of responding to threats. Sex, ease the fear of failure. When Jingdong founder Liu Qiangdong responded to the 2008 financial crisis, he relied on the sentence "Let your brothers live with dignity!", in order to prevent the old employees who have been working with him for more than ten years from doing nothing, he found his sense of responsibility. Ways to overcome the fear of failure.
Path 2: "I Can" As the movie "Chinese Partner" said: "Failure is not terrible, but the fear of failure is truly terrible." Potential threat of failure means that entrepreneurial activities are flawed, and excessive fear of failure makes Entrepreneurs are unable to focus on problems or facts and fall into an emotional "swamp", which ultimately leads to exhaustion and failure of entrepreneurship. Therefore, mastering the methods and techniques to adjust the fear of failure is of great benefit to entrepreneurs.
First of all, entrepreneurs need to face up to fear emotions and make it clear that fear is only an emotional state that can be adjusted to both enemies and friends. When a sense of fear arises, entrepreneurs can guide themselves to pay attention to the positive aspects of the fear of failure, and improve their confidence and the enterprise's confidence in coping with fear by preparing solutions in advance.
Secondly, entrepreneurs need to master certain emotion regulation skills. Research by Engel et al. found that benevolence meditation can improve entrepreneurs’ self-compassion and make them have a more positive self-image. When faced with the threat of failure, it can effectively increase the possibility of responding to threats and reduce the impact of fear of failure. When faced with the fear of failure brought about by the value of opportunity, entrepreneurs often form a cognitive bias in their evaluation of the value of entrepreneurial opportunities due to the negative emotional state of the fear of failure. At this time, if you can reasonably control your emotions and reduce the fear of failure, you can make more rational judgments about the value of opportunities.
Entrepreneurs are accompanied by family and friends, as well as pioneering demonstrations by their predecessors. When faced with the fear of failure, being good at seeking help from others is an effective way to cope with the fear of failure.
Groups trusted by entrepreneurs such as family and friends can provide social support and emotional help. When entrepreneurs face the fear of failure from social respect, talking about their thoughts with important people such as family and friends can effectively break their own assumption that "if they fail, they will no longer trust or like themselves". Reduce the fear of failure.
Successful entrepreneurial predecessors and peers can provide entrepreneurs with a learning direction. By paying attention to them, entrepreneurs can learn the path to successfully break obstacles, thereby providing methodological assistance for overcoming fear and improving entrepreneurs' personal capabilities. This kind of help is especially important when faced with the fear of failure from personal abilities.
Although the entrepreneurial environment is complex and changeable, entrepreneurs can always find a group of entrepreneurs around them who are "sick and pity". They may also face opportunity costs such as personal health and accompanying relatives and friends. They are more able to understand their "pains" and are more willing to listen to themselves. Negative emotions. At this time, entrepreneurs in a state of fear of failure can consciously group with them to warm up, seek emotional support and help, and reduce the fear of failure.
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Fear of failure is an accompanying negative emotional state. Entrepreneurs should learn to get along with fear of failure. For entrepreneurs, the fear of failure has both disadvantages and benefits. When the fear of failure is too high, entrepreneurs should tell themselves "I can" or "I should" and use the power of others to reduce the level of fear of failure. At the same time, it is necessary to use the hint and warning effect of "born in distress" to give full play to the positive force of fear of failure, so that the entrepreneurial journey can go more stable and go further.
