Let’s face it: If you’re breathing, you occasionally feel at least a hint of fear of failure. In episode #1195 of The BIGG Success Show podcast, George & Mary-Lynn explain why even the most successful people you know – or know of – occasionally feel afraid of failure. It shows up as procrastination, perfectionism, overthinking, or outright avoidance. It’s a common feeling, and even a survival mechanism, as your brain is trying to protect you from pain.
Click the player to listen now, or read the summary below.
Fear of failure keeps more people stuck than almost any other internal struggle.
It’s not just a common feeling — it’s a mindset that stops capable, driven people from exploring their full potential. Whether you’re aspiring to start a business, change careers, or simply pursue your BIGG dreams, fear of failure can quietly sabotage your progress.
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/How-Fear-of-Failure-Holds-You-Back.png430448George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2026-02-10 08:34:022026-02-10 08:35:10How Fear of Failure Holds You Back
[haiku url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00818-071212.mp3″ title=”The BIGG Success Show #818″] We’ll explain a little further, because like your keys, this point is too important to lose.
Why failures don’t matter
You can look here for success. You can look there for success. You can look and look and look for success.
You can fail to find it here. You can fail to find it there. You can fail to find it again and again.
But no one will care – and most importantly, you won’t care – once you find BIGG success.
Famous failures
But don’t take our word for it. Let’s look to the words of two famous failures – two people we know you would consider a BIGG success in their chosen field.
What do they have to say about the relationship between success and failure?
Here’s a great quote on success and failure by the man widely hailed as the best basketball player of all time. Michael Jordan said:
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
But it goes beyond sports. It extends into all endeavors.
“I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”
Who remembers the losses Michael Jordan endured? We only remember the wins.
When you hear the name J.K. Rowling, who thinks about anything other than Harry Potter and the amazing success she created?
Only when you look closely do you see they reached success through failure. Success is failure turned inside out.
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bigg-success_stacked-1080.png10801080George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2012-07-12 07:00:282012-07-08 12:28:52Lose Your Keys to Be a Success
You work hard, day after day.
But sometimes you feel like you have little to show for it.
Disappointment.
You outperform others, time after time.
Yet they get rewarded.
Disappointment.
You do everything you’re supposed to do.
To no avail.
Disappointment.
You crave BIGG success with all your heart and all your soul.
Heck, even just plain, old, ordinary success would do.
But it eludes you.
Disappointment.
You feel your heart sink to your toes.
That comes right after the kick in the gut.
It hurts. You hurt. All over.
Disappointment.
You’re exhausted – physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Sleep. Maybe that’s what you need.
But you wake up to the same reality.
Disappointment.
How do you deal with disappointment?
There are a number of ways. We’ll share three thoughts in our time today.
Listen to this post. Click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast! (Runtime 5:30)
[haiku url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00786-030212.mp3″ title=”The BIGG Success Show #786″] Be grateful
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? But you have lots of things to be happy about.
Start with you. Be thankful for how awesome you are.
You’re a winner. You know it.
You may feel a little down, but you’re not out! No disappointment can do that to you.
You will win. You will get what you want. You will reach BIGG success.
It’s only a matter of time.
Grow stronger
Don’t lose your belief in the underlying magic in the world.
Don’t give up on your belief in the forces that will lead to your ultimate victory.
BIGG success is a destination. But it’s also a journey.
See disappointment for what it is – an opportunity to grow stronger. Seize that opportunity so you’re ready for bigger and better things to come.
Look for a sign
A beautiful flower may bloom from the seeds of disappointment. Sure, you feel like the color is gone from your world right now.
But keep the faith. You will create a colorful life. Disappointment may be giving you a sign.
It may be telling you that you’re on the wrong track.
You need to do something else.
It could be saying that you’re trying to do too much.
You need to focus.
Remain open to your intuition. It will help you determine your best path.
Reach out to your support group to see what they think.
Be willing to adapt if necessary.
We’ll close with our own paraphrase of a passage from The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles. This is the book The Secret is based on.
You may expect a certain thing at a certain time. If it doesn’t come, you may feel like you failed. But there is no need to feel this way. Keep the faith and you will find that it only appeared to be a failure.
Keep doing those things which successful people do. Disappointment today leads to even more success tomorrow that you would have ever expected.
Soon you will see that the apparent failure led you to BIGG success!
Yes, we often think of ego as a bad thing but it takes a certain amount of ego to succeed bigg. Without some level of self-confidence, we will never start down the path to our bigg success because our fear of failure paralyzes us.
We have to believe, truly believe, we can do it or we won’t. It’s just that simple. With self-confidence, we are willing to go against the grain. To stick to our guns when people, even those people closest to us, are telling us we shouldn’t do it.
Their intentions are good, but they wouldn’t do it. The things we need to do to pursue our bigg dream takes most people out of their comfort zone. So they never start. But just because they wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.
Enough of it so we persevere
Self-confidence also helps us stick with it in spite of the obstacles. We will face hurdles on our path to bigg success. The difference between success and failure is often a fine line. And we step over that line with perseverance.
But if we lack the confidence in ourselves and our plan, we won’t persevere. We won’t keep on keeping on. We will stop each and every time we face adversity. We have to believe in ourselves and what we can do if we are to succeed bigg.
Not so much of it that we stop listening
If we don’t have enough ego, we will fail. But if we have too much, we will fail too.
We’ve probably all heard that “Pride goes before a fall.” This is the reason why ego often carries with it a bad name and it’s a good reason.
We may have reached some level of success. It goes to our heads. Our egos get too large and we may start to feel invincible. That the rules, the natural laws, don’t apply to us anymore. We have a gift. We have the Midas touch. We were born to succeed. It’s our destiny.
That over-confidence leads to our fall, our failure. We don’t take advice from the people around us. We think we know more than they do.
The fine line
Isn’t it interesting that listening to people when we’re not confident enough often leads to failure but not listening to people when we’re too confident also often leads to failure?
It emphasizes what a fine line there is in finding the right level of confidence. We want a certain amount of confidence, but we don’t want to get cocky. We need to approach that line – between confidence and cockiness – but not cross it.
Confidence with humility … that leads to bigg success!
Thank you for reading our post today. Join us next time when discuss three questions that lead to thrilling your customers. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bigg-success_stacked-1080.png10801080George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2009-03-18 02:00:322009-03-17 15:02:13We Need It But Not Too Much of It
John Wooden, arguably the best coach in the history of college basketball, developed the Pyramid of Success It’s a wonderful tool to succeed BIGG in any endeavor you choose.
Last week, we looked at Industriousness, one of the two cornerstones. This week, we’ll look at the other cornerstone.
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There’s this one thing that we have to have in order to succeed bigg. 
