Fear of failure can motivate us to success

Statistics globally for entrepreneur failure rates can usually make for sobering reading. It is thought that almost a quarter of business startups will not make it through their first year, and only around half will manage to make it to their fifth anniversary. The numbers get even smaller around the 10 year success mark. Interestingly, women entrepreneurs tend to find it more difficult to deal with business failure than their male counterparts, often feeling that sense of failure very personally. The end result is that women entrepreneurs have a tendency to drive themselves to achieve business success by making fewer costly mistakes, not taking big risks, and growing more patiently, all because they fear failure. What is encouraging is the level of business resilience that women show, with around two thirds of women entrepreneurs indicating they would pick themselves up following a business failure, learn the lessons, and try again. So while fear of failure is a reality and a natural part of the entrepreneurial journey, being able to harness that fear and use it as a tool for personal and business growth is what can motivate us to achieve eventual success. Now that is a skillset that women need to possess and nurture.