Hey Lady! What's your strategy?

Are you one of those women who aspire to launch a business but haven't yet? You are part of the 40%.

Strategists are like doctors that define a treatment protocol. I could never be a doctor, maybe a in the lab, but I love strategies. Especially ones that help you move forward, at the right direction in the right pace without totally stepping out of your own skin. Be it as a corporate leader or as an entrepreneur.

But, even more than defining the right map and action plan I love diving into the research phase before. The phase where we uncover the true vision and goal, and when cleaning out the noise and clutter that are creating lots of un needed friction on our road or wheels, you choose.

Many don't like working with me because I don't spend the time that they believe is needed to analyze the challenge in the way they present it. But rather, I first seek the most important goal and what will be the most percise measurment to track our progress. Only after a clear vision and a definition of our north star metric (=the most crucial measurment) do I spend time to analyze the challenge and its root cause.

Did you know that by the age of 45 nearly 40% of women aspire to start their own business, but haven't yet taken the leap.

Do you have a clear vision and north star? There is a whole framework The Core-4 to help clean out the clutter and strategize. But this is not what I want to share today. Rather, as a personal gift to my fellow aspiring female entrepreneurs for Internationals womans day #IWD I want to share the real challenges that could be your root cause for not moving towards your dream. And, to offer some food for thought about the tiny step you could take this week.

So what is the root cause you are cemented?

If your vision includes a business that you launched or founded, could any of these reasons to not moving forward be relevant to you? I used this prompt on a few AI research engines. Here's my emalgamated, and short version of all of their answers: There are two main types of reasons to why you are cemented: They are either internal or external.

External circumstanses are ones that you can manage, overcome or deal with tactically and move on like what's refered to as work-life balance, caregiving responsibilities and lack of financial knowlege. The Internal ones, as always are bit trickier. And we, my dear sisters and girlsfriends are the masters of these reasons. Both of experiencing them, blind siting ourselves with sugar coated stories and excuses up the wazu. And by the way, the exact opposite: Fear of success is pretty much a twin sister. Because the fear itself is of the loss that success would create: A failed relationship, failing as a "the perfect mom", or failing to vision the right dream and ending up empty handed.

External circumstances are ones that you can manage, overcome, or deal with tactically and move on like what is referred to as work-life balance, caregiving responsibilities and lack of financial knowledge. The Internal ones, as always, are bit trickier because we blindside ourselves with sugar coated stories and excuses up the wazu.

Fear of failure remains a huge obstacle to launching new startups, especially for women. About two in five adults will not start a business even when spotting a good opportunity for fear in might fail. But if we narrow down on women, we will find a higher proportion who wouldn't start a business for fear it might fail. I was surprised to find that the largest perception gap was in the United Kingdom: 63% of the women who spot a good business opportunity and are interested in pursuing it would not act accordingly for fear it might fail, compared to just 44% of men in the UK that admit to this reason.

My personal challenge with the term "Fear of failure" is that it doesn't leave me with a clear picture of what we need to solve and what map to strategise. Lucky for me and us all, I spent some time with my new best friends #Gemini & #ChatGPT and prompted the following:

" You are one of the 40% of women that by the age of 45, aspire to start their own business, but haven't yet taken the leap. the citation for this is the GEM 2023/24 report. Please list the reasons you give yourself, as an excuse and for everyone on the list please explain it using a relevant psychological theory and then through the lenses of NLP therapy. Then, based on these theories add another element to every answer: an action to move towards change." This was the beginning of a deep five-hour dive. Bet you want the short version and the bottom line, right?

Fear of Failure

It doesn't matter which psycological theory we will use to analyze this complex phenomenon they all share the same common denominator: An anticipation of a negative consequence that trigger anxiety, shame which turn avoidance into the outcome. Bummer. But still, if we find the closest trigger to our core, we have a better chance to overcome, if we choose to.

The self-efficacy theory focuses on our belief that we can live up to our goals. Past personal experiences of failure, watching others fail, and, negative self-talk, could trigger an incapable feeling of handling the challenges associated with potential failure.

The social identity theory examines our need to belong. No matter how many quotes you'll find about the importance of failure most of us still look failure in the eye and see a reflection of ridicule, regection and the unbearable feeling of being escorted out from our tribe. So we might as well maintain a positive social image. Right? Wrong.

You get the drill by now right? However, I still want to share the horrible feeling of those that failure triggers their self preservation. A basic human need for physical and social survival. Risking our survival for the sake of personal accomplishments or economic growth could trigger the fight-or-flight response of survival. A trigger that for nearly every person and animal creates a survival response: Freeze. And then, like most of us rational or not homo sapians we will choose to avoide pain. Let alone the pain and fear of being wiped out.

Now, what's your back wind for this? What can make anyone in such a deep survival mindset, to move forward and bring their vision to life?

The outcome has to be something either equally or more scary. Or, extremly rewarding and pleasurable to make it all worth it.

Now, before we move to the inspiring stories of the #InternationalWomansDay as yourself what could be the worst outcome if you do not live up to your vision? And what is your victory vision if you do and it works?

Please like or comment on this if you would like to get the next thought provoking question. Thank you and I wish us all a rewarding week ahead.

Nili G