As founders and executive leaders, we all share the desire to create and believe in something that will leave the world a better place. We want our investors to get “fat”, our customers to trust us and benefit, our employees to see personal and financial success, and our solution to solve tangible problems, but we also share the fears – that we might let someone down, that we may not do as well as we could have, or that we simply overshot.
Growing and scaling a business and achieving profitability can be difficult. It’s a voyage with many turns that make you question yourself and cause you to wonder how and where there may be people in similar situations that are asking themselves the same questions. We’re trusted to be the Man (or Woman) in the Red Cape, the one with the crystal ball, the one holding all the answers. There is no room for failure.
“It’s always a little bit frustrating to me when people have a negative relationship with failure. Failure is a massive part of being able to be successful. You have to get comfortable with failure. You have to actually seek failure. Failure is where all of the lessons are.”
So, we master navigating the expectations, we attempt to inspire, we learn to use failures as lessons, and we hide our fears under the red cape. No one is the wiser.