340 - Fear: Recognize It. Face It. Move Anyway!

0:00Fear. Recognize it, face it, and move anyway. Certainly during the current situation with tariffs and inflation, it's foolish not to acknowledge that there's uncertainty in the financial situation. that we deal with in business acquisition. So just recognize that and briefly validate that fear is a normal reaction, but how you respond to it is what matters. And there's several quotes, fear, false evidence appearing real. Most of the time that's true. If you're looking off the top of a building wondering what would happen if you stepped off, no, that's not false evidence. that's real. One of the quotes I liked the best was, do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.

0:52There's a question as to whether that was Ralph Waldo Emerson or Mark Twain. Really doesn't matter. To me, the point is the same. And Eleanor Roosevelt, you gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You're able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Pretty good experience. So let's talk about fear. Fear really is your brain's way of protecting you. It is certainly rooted in uncertainty and oftentimes in perceived danger. But in business, it's really life or death.

1:40Fear often shows up as procrastination, overthinking, or waiting for the perfect time. Boy, have I heard that a lot. I'm not ready. I got to do more studying. Not usually. So how does fear paralyze? Well, left unchecked, fear leads to inaction. Inaction breeds regret and missed opportunities where you kick yourself over and over again. And then fear magnifies worst-case scenarios, most of which will never happen. I've said 95 % of the stuff you worry about will not happen. The 5 % we can deal with. So what's the real risk? The real risk is the bigger risk is not taking action. Economic shifts, like tariffs, what we're going through now, can create opportunities for those who move.

2:30Fortune favors the bold, especially when others freeze. And you will find that, that a lot of people pull back, don't know what to do, and other people will use this time to be tremendously successful. And I hope you're in the latter, not the former. So how do you deal with fear? First, acknowledge it. Don't suppress it, but name it. What exactly are you afraid of? And break it down. Is it fear of failure? Is it rejection that you're afraid of? Is it the unknown? I don't know what's going to happen. And then challenge it. Ask, what's the worst thing that could realistically happen? Then what's the best thing that could happen?

3:13And look at both sides of that coin. Most of the time, you will come away thinking, okay, even if the worst thing happens, I can deal with it. And then take micro actions. Action absolutely dissolves fear. So make one call, send one email, have one meeting, and most of the time you're going to find that, oh, that was not as bad as I thought. And then focus on your why. I say that a lot. If your why is strong, it becomes your fuel. You know, the example I use, especially ones that parents can relate to, is if your children was in a burning building. Yes, there is certainly danger about that, But the action required to save someone you love overrides that fear, and you would do whatever you needed to do to get that child out of that building or die trying.

4:10But you wouldn't be thinking about, oh, I might die. You would just focus on, I've got to get that kid out of that building. And the more you can have your actions and your thought process relate to that in terms of the actions you're taking, the better off you'll be. So a lot of times people get confused. The people who succeed are not fearless. They've learned to take action despite fear. Their comfort zone expands. They get more comfortable doing things that at first they didn't. And then fear certainly is a compass. It points you towards something worth doing. and then ask yourself, what action have I been avoiding out of fear?

4:53And if you can identify the number one thing that you could do that would change everything for the positive, then do that. So take that step today. I hope that you are pursuing business acquisitions. If you're listening to this podcast, I suspect you are. Hopefully you know what to do. if not just finished up the acquisition advantage boot camp 2025 edition lots of new things to deal with what we're going through now that was live for six weeks but you don't have to wait six weeks they're all uploaded to the kajabi account and if you get those now you can go through those as quickly as you can go through there's about 10 hours of content and questions and answers there So that might help you as well.

5:42But go over to BruceWhipple.com. You'll see the courses. You'll see the coaching that's done. If any of that can help you, certainly reach out to me. But remember, you are not the only one afraid of things. The real test and the real path to success is moving forward, irrespective of the fear that you feel.