“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”  ~William Shakespeare

I am giving a seminar in Boulder Colorado next week called “Fearless Self Promotion”.  I could have easily called this seminar “Getting Past the Fear of Rejection”.  The fear of rejection and the failure to promote yourself and your business are tightly wound together.  I can tell you from my own experiences in getting past the fear of rejection and the experiences that I have had in helping hundreds of clients to get past this same fear: Nothing will cause you more stress and make it harder to successfully grow your business and make it more likely that you will ultimately fail than the fear of rejection.

This fear is so common and often operates at a completely unconscious level.  It manifests as procrastination, and stress, and confusion, and illness and so many other reactions and behaviors that it is commonly missed and the person trying to grow their business from a core state of “Fear of Rejection” has no clue what is going on.  At the same time, I have worked with clients so disgusted with themselves, and their fears, that they are literally hating the entire aspect of their personality that is controlling this fear.  Here is a strong belief of mine based on experience: If you hate part of yourself, you cannot possibly win.

The process of getting past the fear of rejection is a process that I mastered.  I mastered it initially to help myself; I was being completely controlled by this fear.  We will talk more about this another time.  For this post there are just 2 more things:  1) I believe that for those of you that are still operating your life with the fear of rejection as a jailer; you must take whatever steps are required to get you past this fear…your life and your dreams are waiting for you on the other side and 2)  I am going to give you some expert opinions about fear.  There are very few topics where it is easier to find the famous talking about their experiences than the topic of fear.  Enough from me: here is your round table of experts:

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are.” ~Don Miguel Ruiz

“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears.” ~Rudyard Kipling  

“Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat.” (Fortune favors the brave.) ~Classic Latin

“He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” ~Les Brown

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” ~H. Jackson Browne

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ~Frank Herbert, Dune – Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” ~Dorothy Thompson

“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” ~German proverb