Why Does Fear Lead to Failure?

by: Susan Bagyura

While touring the States doing TV and radio interviews recently, I had the chance to listen to the story of a once very successful business in Connecticut which was announcing the layoff of 475 workers. What had gone wrong?

The CEO was interviewed and he said that their business started hitting bad times 4 years ago and their strategy was to cut, reduce and eliminate expenditures since then. He went on to say that they had been trying to avoid these layoffs for sometime but they no longer could.

He had excuses as to why this had to happen, including blaming the economy. The way he recounted the past, he made the company and the employees all victims of circumstance.

In other interviews, I saw the despair of some of the workers that were losing their jobs. They talked about events and circumstances as well as their fears of this happening. It was obvious that they never made any connection to their thoughts, feelings and actions and what they were seeing in their outer world.

Never once during all the newscasts, interviews and subsequent articles did I ever hear or read about the creative measures that the company took to turn the business around. Instead everyone from the CEO on down continues to focus on lack, limitation and outside influences as the basis of their problems. The responses to their creation are tactics that are killing the business.

People in this company, including the CEO, showed their ignorance of the law of sowing and reaping; also known as the law of cause and effect. It is absolutely impossible to create a healthy, wealthy, thriving business while holding thoughts of worry and doubt; feeling fearful and full of anxiety and taking destructive actions. Whatever we think in our minds must grow.

The condition is the effect that we see; it is not the true cause that we see. One must dig down deep into their mental storehouse to find out what is that cause. If they cannot discern it, there are others who can. Now I have no doubt that there were people that supported the actions that the CEO took; so therefore it is critical to look at the results of any advisor. If you are going to follow someone, make certain that they are achieving great results.

This business is not where it is today because of outside conditions. This CEO programmed the company for failure by the very actions he took based on the wrong thinking. The very things he feared are what he has created and he will continue to do so until he changes his vision.

There are many people who live and die and never know anything different from what has been handed down to them. However once you change your vision, you will change conditions. Only when we cease to recognize a condition do we cease to attract or create it. The only way we can cease to recognize things is to change our minds about them.

There are 3 enemies which must be cleared out in order to achieve success in any endeavor. These are fear, worry/doubt and indecision. They always go together. If a person is timid, backward or fearful, fear will act as a brake to retard their progress. Fear is main cause of failures; it cannot be eliminated by either drugs or a surgeon's knife. The only remedy known for fear is understanding. This requires a commitment to studying and applying what is learned. It definitely requires getting out of the comfort zone - to stop doing the same old things that aren't working.

Indecision is the seed of fear. Indecision turns into doubt. The two blended together become fear. This blending process is often slow, which is the main reason why these 3 enemies are so dangerous. They are insidious and grow without their presence even being noticed. Many times people fool themselves to think that they are being cautious when they are actually breeding fear.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind. One's state of mind will set the course and direction of their future. Doubts and fears about the future are pointless, but even worse; they will create an unwanted future.

Conversely, success is predicated on bringing one's self and actions to a higher standard. When the heart is right, the head thinks right. The fact that someone desires to succeed is evidence that they have the power to succeed; otherwise they would not have been urged to aspire towards success. Understand that you cannot aspire to succeed unless you have the power to succeed. Desire creates the power; power inspires the mind of the person, and success is the result of that inspiration rightly applied.

Success then is the way we learn to use 2 valuable things - our time and thought. Knowledge alone is not success; it is the way we use that knowledge...