Q. “What do you do when you’ve done one of those things you are afraid of and feel like you failed at it?”

A. It’s not what happens to us but how we handle and interpret it that matters. So if you deem yourself as having failed, that will be true. However, if you deem yourself as being a student and that you tried something that didn’t work the way you thought, you’ve gifted yourself with a teaching. And it’s even better if you went into your fear to do it… fear is an intangible limitation that, in many cases, hasn’t any real substance. It hides our power, and only by taking action toward it will it dissipate. So, regardless of the outcome, you have already won because you are bigger than your fear.

To give yourself some context, think about how many people have tried things and ‘failed’, only to become icons of success? Michael Jordan was blasted by his high school coach as a terrible player, Colonel Sanders was rejected hundreds of times for his recipe, Mark Victor Hansen got pink slips from hundreds of publishers before someone believe in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. And there are thousands more examples just like these… so what’s failure when you really get down to it? Pushing beyond what you knew, thought or expected.

So, to answer your specific questions, go do it again in a new way and see what happens next. :+)

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Q: How do I know if a partnership is the right thing for my business right now?

A: A partnership does one of two things: gives you access to skills, expertise, resources and experience you don’t have and shares the commitment to what you’re doing in your business with someone else who believes in it as much as you do. You can have a business partnership OR you can have a project partnership, which is what I generally advocate. All too often entrepreneurs are focused on getting a partner as a way to stave off their own fears rather than showing up all the way for themselves and their businesses. To get around that, a specific project partnership (like a joint venture) can work very well.

If you decide to move forward with a business partnership, I recommend that you have some serious conversations before you move ahead. Ask things like: what happens when one of us is having a bad day? How do we point out that the other isn’t following through on commitments? What is the exit strategy for our partnership? How will we know when to call it quits? And then document it… it doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be in writing so your operating guidelines for the partnership are clear in advance.

Lastly, you’ll know if partnership is the right thing if you cannot see yourself moving forward in your business without a partner AND you believe in your business. If it feels right, follow that… and give yourself permission to see what internal insecurities are being filled by an external person. ;+)

-Lynn