Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Frozen by Fear

I read in a blog the other day how a recent neuroscience study showed that fear drives us more than we ever would care to admit. Makes sense. I don't think that comes as a shock to anyone. In fact, in this economy, everyone is in survival mode these days, for fear of losing everything they have worked so hard to obtain. Needless to say, this is not the best time to take risks.

Or is it?

Especially in business during economic downturns, those who learn to manage their fear have been able to turn lemons into some rather tasty lemonade, as it were. But those who do not, become paralyzed to do anything to promote their business.

When it comes to building businesses and brands, it's all about solutions and meeting needs. Everyone would agree the recession has changed society and culture to the point we can no longer look at the world the same way or go about doing about business as usual. That's just the nature of change and when things change, we all have to adjust.

This certainly opens the door for innovation, but not everyone will walk through it. Only the strong survive and I'm not just talking no guts, no glory here. No, this isn't merely about courage. This is about character. Character that says, if I truly have something to offer that's of any value, then discounting my brand is the last thing I should be doing right now. Character that says, everyone else is freaking out, but I'm going to stand strong knowing that this is just a test, and if I pass, I'll reap a reward for years to come, because my brand never stopped being relevant. If it did, then that's a discussion for another time, but the point I'm trying to make for everyone else is this: Failure seems to always follow its best friend, fear.

Business has always been about sowing and reaping and right now many are seeing the field as ripe unto harvest. So staff up and send your sales force out knowing that your return on investment is imminently at hand.

No comments:

Post a Comment