When Fear of Rejection freezes your business - before it even starts.

Every day you see others creating businesses that are both successful and authentic. Really living out their passions. You want that too, but you're stuck between "I want this" and "what if I'm not good enough for it?"

This fear of rejection is the very first hurdle every one of those businesses you see had the overcome. Think of it like the cost of starting. Without tackling that challenge you can't even start, not truely, and many people get stuck at that first step, and stay there forever. Shrinking themselves and playing small out of fear.

The problem isn't laziness, you've already shown you are capable, have the skills and the passion is pouring out of you. The challenge is an overactive inner critic, which is often shaped by our childhood. There are old stories we tell ourselves, that might have served us at one point, but not now.

When you think about putting the real you out into the world, whether through an instagram post, or a conversation with someone in your family. You want to tell the world about your ideas but your inner critic says "they might judge you for it, and say you're not good enough". When we let that inner voice win, and we don't get judged (because we didn't say it), that negatively reinforces the behaviour, so you're more likely to repeat it the next time you think about being honest and real.

In business, this prevents you from putting yourself forward for bigger work, you question your pricing, apologize for taking peoples time, show a version of yourself you think they want to see, rather than who you are. All of these signal a lack of confidence to potential customers, your people, who need your service, they need the real you.

We fear rejection from our tribal days when rejection from the tribe meant certain death. These days, rejection doesn't mean death, it not does even reflect us, it reflects the fit between us and them, just a wrong fit. You are still the same person before and after a possible rejection.

To overcome this, we find actions that are both scary and authentic. Maybe it's reaching out to a single person you are afraid to show the real you. Or maybe it's an authentic social media post. The goal here is, if you get rejected, to understand that it's not a reflection of your worth, it's a reflection of the fit. If you don't get rejected and it works out, that shows you how much you are leaving behind by not following your passion, you need to do it and the world needs you to.

Pick one action, right now, and make a promise to yourself to do it as soon as possible. It's okay if it's scary, you are doing it because it's scary. You're losing so much to the fear of rejection, but lucky for you, changing it is within your control.

If you recognise yourself here, this is exactly the kind of work I help men overcome, turning fear of rejection into courage and I'd love to have a conversation with you about working together.