Dear Entrepreneur Who's Afraid Your Business Will Fail:

Congratulations! You’re normal—or at least as “normal” as an entrepreneur can be.

Starting a business is crazy, considering most of them fail in the first year, and only a select few last a decade or longer.

When you become an entrepreneur you close the door on the old, safe way of making an income where your time has a price tag on it, and you’re compensated accordingly.

When you become an entrepreneur, you enter a world where your time is priceless in the purest meaning of the word—there is no price on your time, only on the value you create.

You could make a million-dollar decision in five minutes of think-time, or you could spend 50 hours a week checking off tasks that don’t make a difference and walk away broke.

Does that world sound terrifying or exciting?

If you’re a healthy entrepreneur, the correct answer is... both!

It’s normal to be terrified, to be afraid that you will fail. You are taking a risk that most people won’t do more than dream of for that very reason—there is a good chance you’ll fail.

Starting a business is scary, and there’s no guarantee of success. . . but isn’t that why it’s also exciting?

When you take the leap, you’ve won your first battle.

Starting a business is the external result of an internal battle, where you have already arisen as the victor in your battle between self-doubt and self-belief.

Now you’ve won that battle, but the war has just begun.

In the war to come, you will face resistance, challenges, and unexpected setbacks that you could never predict because you are in uncharted territory without a map.

There are many things beyond your control, but it’s not helpful to waste your time dwelling on problems without solutions (except where you can measure them if they affect what you do).

Instead, you need to focus on what you can control. With each step choose the highest leverage, most effective, use of your priceless attention and time.

At the outset, you need to decide to succeed. History’s great explorers never left home with one foot still on the shore, waiting for a “sure thing” before setting sail.

They sailed off the edge of the map, full speed ahead, without knowing what they would find. Some explorers found nothing, coming back empty-handed (or not coming back at all).

Other explorers found lands no one had dreamt of, filled with adventures and opportunities that led to riches or a new place to call home.

There is a big difference between playing to win and playing to not lose.

When you play to win, you take calculated risks when the potential reward is much greater than the time, effort, and resources you put in.

When you play to not lose, you play it safe. You take small risks where the potential loss is minimal—which usually means the reward is minimal as well.

When you decide to succeed you can’t help but play to win, because your brain flips from “What if?” to “How?” and you come up with creative solutions, and get to work.

That’s what you’re paid for now: creative solutions, executed well.

I want you to win this war and for your business to succeed.

I’m not alone in that desire, because our society is built on the backs of entrepreneurs who’ve gone before us and left behind solutions like railways and automobiles and airplanes (don’t forget indoor plumbing, light bulbs, and canned food).

As an entrepreneur, you are a weirdo—but all the “normal” people are counting on your success.

Why not share in their confidence and decide to succeed? What do you have to lose?

Actually, that’s the wrong question. A better question is, what do you have to gain?