In part one of this series, I talked about what I know about you and anxiety. In this part two, I want to talk about what I believe about anxiety and what I want for you as an entrepreneur. I am not a medical doctor. I am not a psychiatrist.

It starts with the intention to be disruptive, creative and strategic. It starts with the belief in the idea that you were born for a purpose and you have a mission you deserve to accomplish. Your belief becomes your message. Your belief needs to be clear. It needs to express what you feel deep inside.

In this two-part series, I want to talk about anxiety. This is something that we entrepreneurs don’t talk about often. I am going to. This wasn’t easy to write. I stopped myself several times to write something else. It’s got to be done. It’s going to sound a little dark.

The biggest mistake you can make in your business and in your life as an entrepreneur is to try and protect yourself from failure. If you want to become who you want to be, you must be willing to fail. If you want to get hired, you must be willing to get fired. If you want to get customers, you must be willing to get rejected.

Are you feeling frustrated and stuck in business and with your life? It could be because you are too fixated on performance. You may be ignoring the learning and growth opportunities that are in front of you. The uncomfortable things in front of you might be what you actually need to get to the next level of your business.

Goal setting is a common prescription most entrepreneurs use when they’re looking to perform at a higher level and grow their businesses. There is nothing evil about that. I believe goal setting is how you become who you want to be. Using goals to unlock massive growth in your business seems like a noble thing to do.

I used to think passion was enough to grow your business, go through life as a young entrepreneur, and succeed with your team. I was wrong, very wrong. I discovered the hard way that you need strategy. I discovered you need to learn how to lead yourself first before you can lead anyone else.

Being true to yourself as a young entrepreneur is like falling in love. You can’t fake it. You have to be vulnerable. There are no guarantees that the other person will love you back. Some people will love you back and some people will reject you. And that’s ok.