How to Flip Fear into Financial Fortune
When the stock market spirals downward, it’s known as a crash. When people react to market shifts by rushing to sell off their stocks, it’s known as panic selling. Crash and panic selling are not positive terms! The folks who unload their stock in a panic are reacting emotionally and ignoring all investing fundamentals. They often lose a ton of money in opportunity cost. Fear is the worst way to manage your stock portfolio because it will never grow. You are bailing out before allowing anything positive to happen. You have to take some risks and ride things out in order to meet with success. Here is how you can flip fear into financial fortune.
NEVER CASH OUT EARLY DUE TO FEAR
It’s no different at the poker table. Is a nervous poker player going to win the pot? Never. Every time a fearful player has a bad hand or is bluffing, he’ll break out in a sweat, bite his nails, rub his chin, or show some other involuntary sign. He’ll lose every single time. Meanwhile, the calm, cool cucumber wearing shades stays the course and cleans up the table.
Since we are already on the subject of gambling, here’s one more analogy: Think about the slot machines. You’ve put quarters in the same machine all day. You’ve blown $100 and are ready to throw in the towel. As soon as you leave, a 90-year-old lady with a cigarette dangling from her lips and a cup of quarters plunks herself down on your chair while it’s still warm. She puts a coin in, pulls the lever, and guess what? JACKPOT!
I’m sure that your company has a far better business model than playing the slot machines. And hopefully, it’s not quite as volatile as the stock market. In any case, do not allow fear—or any emotion, for that matter—to dictate what you do with your business. Your mindset needs to be free, clear, and focused at all times to make the right business decisions, especially when bad things happen.
IT’S JUST BUSINESS
We’ve established that you need to separate your emotions from your business thinking. This is one of the key signs of a good leader. Let’s take that a step further. You have to see your business as a separate entity from yourself as an investment. If you view your company as a personal asset rather than as a separate investment entity, you are putting all of those things at risk because you have a fearful, conservative mindset. Consider the following scenarios:
- Passing on buying out a major competitor because your child is attending an expensive university the following year.
- Leaving key positions unfilled because you hear an economic downturn might be looming.
- Not hiring a business coach for yourself because you are remodeling your house.
- Cutting the marketing budget before the plan is launched because revenue is below expectations for the month.
- Selling your business for much less than it would be worth if you took the time to put the right systems and team in place.
Variations of the above situations occur all too frequently in private businesses. Admit it: You are guilty at one time or another of at least one of these cardinal sins caused by fear.
Most commonly, I’m sure there was probably a time when you needed to hire someone to fill an important open position but put it off for weeks or months because you were worried about cash flow and paying bills. Meanwhile, you lost money from opportunities that fell through the cracks due to a lack of bandwidth on your team. Plus, your team became utterly confused about what was happening about that position and was buzzing over these questions:
- Will this crucial role ever be filled?
- Is the business network in such poor shape we can’t afford to bring someone in for a job that is so important?
- Is my job at risk?
- How long will I have to keep covering tasks that should be done by someone filling this position?
The end result: turmoil. Your team gets into panic mode. They lose focus. They burn out. They look for other jobs. Massive turnover. And it’s all because you thought of your business as a personal asset, not a business asset, and allowed your fearful “cave brain” to rule your decision-making.
Your approach must always be to hire the best team players that you can possibly attract—and then work every day to retain them. If your mindset is that you are always worried about cash flow and its impact on your personal finances, your team will pick up on this and they will be unable to serve the organization to the best of their ability. (Who do you need to hire? Find out with this free download and video training.)
Ditching your fearful money mindset and separating your emotions while scaling your business means never acting as if you are in survival mode—even during the most challenging times. Do not allow personal matters to influence your business thinking. When you enter the front door of your home, then you can take off your business hat and focus 100% on your family and yourself.
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