What Are We So Afraid Of?
According to scientific studies, humans are only born with two fears: the fear of falling, and the fear of loud noises. Scientists have experimented with babies and young animals by putting them on transparent glass. Most of the babies and animals were afraid to take a step into the glass, which was beyond the edge. Other fears are born with experience, observation, and cultural beliefs.
Last week our neighbor across the street got solar panels installed. Be patient, I promise there is a connection here. They are widespread here in sunny California and more and more are going in each day. My ‘office’ (aka dining room) faces directly across from their house. So I spent the day subconsciously watching the installation.
Even though I was working, I kept finding myself enthralled in the process. It's not so much that the process was interesting, it is the way the men achieved the installation. It is a one-story house but with very high vaulted ceilings, so the ladder they were using was probably about twelve feet tall and was just leaning against the house.
These men would walk on that roof as if it were a flat service with sure footing and no hesitation. I never saw anyone slip or take a misstep. But the most fascinating thing was the way they climbed the ladder. They marched up it as if they were just climbing a flight of stairs. I watched one in particular climb the ladder with the grace of a ballerina holding a giant solar panel over his head with both hands. He did not ever touch the ladder with his hands and stepped onto the slanted roof with ease.
The fear of falling and failing
The reason I bring this up is that we are hard-wired to be scared of falling. Obviously, these men had to overcome that fear. I suspect it may have taken months of white-knuckle roof walking to get to a point where they weren’t fearful of falling. But it just goes to show how if you are determined enough, it is possible. Possibly did some quit after day one of solar panel installation? Sure, it takes grit and perseverance to overcome our fears, especially the ones that are baked in. When I see anyone who does anything that I know would terrify me, I am always impressed because I think to myself that I would never have enough courage to do what it takes to overcome that fear.
We are often fearful of certain things because we are scared of what might happen if we try them. But the bigger fear should be what if we don’t try them? In our business, there aren’t a lot of physically challenging issues, so it is more about being fearful of embarrassment or failure which all comes down to being worried about what people think of us. Or some people are just scared of working hard!
Counteract the cuts with new revenue
I see many people in our industry comfortable with the status quo. It’s easy to do the same thing every day. But as they say, you can’t expect different results. And while the market was good, the status quo was acceptable. But now that leaders are turning over every rock to find cost savings or ways to increase revenue, it is more important than ever to take initiative and it may be scary. We have to shove down that anxiety and think about the rewards of our efforts.
Cost cutting can be uncomfortable, particularly if it means making staff adjustments. But you can counteract that need to eliminate staff by going after new lines of business to increase revenue and units. That may mean creating new programs that take a significant amount of time and effort to develop and market. It means learning new things and exploring new opportunities right now so the payoff comes next year.
Why develop new programs now? Your competitors are cutting staff and whittling back services. By stepping up and offering new options for niche markets, you can carve out market share where you never thought it existed before. People are still buying and selling houses. It is about tapping into new streams of revenue from existing clients and also looping in new sources of buyers and sellers that you never had before.
Be fearful of what might happen if you don’t step up right now. It is the perfect time to show that we don’t have a fear of falling.
“Fear of failure is a far worse condition than failure itself because it kills off possibilities.” ~Michael D. Eisner, an American businessman and former Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company
