3 Titanic Icebergs Floating in the Path of Your Business

Running a business can be the most challenging and the most rewarding thing a person can do. But it’s never smooth sailing. There are too many obstacles in your path to mention, so here are three of the biggest. Read on, and learn how to avoid being sunk by them.

1 Lack of Self Belief

Successful business leaders all have one thing in common: massive self-belief. “To succeed, we must first believe that we can” wrote Michael Korda, and he was right on the money. Start learning to trust yourself because the success or failure of your business depends on it. You’ll face criticism, disbelief and downright opposition but your self-belief is the invisible shield of protection that gives you the edge.

2 Not Starting

Failure to launch has killed more great businesses than any competitor, market force or recession that ever existed. If you have a good idea, have done your key critical research (established that you have a viable product, a market and a route to it) then what’s stopping you? Don’t wait to build a perfect ship before you sail. Just make it seaworthy and take some lumber and a carpenter with you. Set sail and you can finish the vessel on the way. The crucial thing is to get started. After all, you can’t arrive at a destination unless you start travelling.

3 Giving Up Too Soon

There is a Japanese proverb that advises: “fall down seven times, get up eight”. There may be a time to stop one day, but today is not that day. It’s a truism that most business failures happen because of people giving up just before they become successful. Who knows what success may be around the next corner? It’s okay to get it wrong sometimes if you don’t let it stop you. After all, more businesses have succeeded because the owner carried on for one more day, than those where the owner has decided to give in. As Norman Vincent Peale put it: “It’s always too soon to quit”.

The Next Step

These are the three biggest obstacles in the path of your business voyage. Believe in your ability to make it; avoid prevarication when you should be setting sail; and never give up, even though it sometimes feels like you’re about to go down with your ship. Give these three icebergs a wide berth if you want to avoid that sinking feeling.