The Fear of Zero

Leadership Lesson: Sometimes you start over

Everything starts at zero

No job

No career

No friends

No promotion

No relationship

No customers

No business

And no idea how to get any of these things

We all start at the beginning

And when you’re young, this is normal

First day of school

First job

First crush

On and on it goes until you think,

“At least I won’t have to start from scratch again”

Until you do

New job

New love

New town

New team

New career

New path in life

While new can be exciting, when you start at zero it can be terrifying

We all have a healthy fear of the unknown

What if it doesn’t work out?

What if no one shows up?

What if I’m the only one that feels this way?

You’re not

It’s normal

You’ll succeed, you’ll fail, and yes, it’s hard

And like most things, at some point, you’ll find yourself at zero

Examining my history of struggles

When I look back on my experiences, it’s easy to spot some big wins

Big successes that came from years of hard work

That time a girl at the mall recognized me from my band and invited us to play a show she was organizing

Acting in the theater to sold-out houses

That time I did a solo Improv show and got a standing ovation

Career success and getting referred to new clients

Getting asked to be a keynote speaker at several events

But for each success, there are failures and those failures aren’t as easy to talk about

That time my band played a show to no one and the bar shut down the next week

That time we did it again at another bar about a week later

That’s right. We closed down 2 bars in a month

I used to run an Improv jam show that struggled to get enough people to show up and perform

Then the show gained momentum and consistently drew large crowds

And then it didn’t and we were back to struggling

It took years to get accepted to speak at the annual Agile Alliance conference

It’s the biggest Agile conference of the year

This conference brings thousands of people from all over the world together

I had my session scheduled in the last slot, right before the closing party

I was in the largest room they had

It was two giant rooms combined and could fit at least 200-400 people in it

We had 9

It’s much easier to talk about the other sessions I did in the following years at that conference

They drew much larger crowds

It’s easier to talk about success

But success is built on failures

It’s easy to look on social media and see how great everyone is doing

We all hide the hard stuff

But the hard stuff is where the magic happens

Want to be a great leader?

Don’t try and be a perfect leader

Embrace your failures and admit your mistakes

We all start at zero and people who aspire to be where you are need to see that

This mailing list started at zero

This first newsletter went out to 7 people

Sure, it’s grown since then, but it’s nowhere near where I’d like it to be

Yet

I published my first video with my last newsletter

It currently has 13 views

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before, when you start something new it always goes back to zero

Zero can be a blessing

When you start from zero, the formula is always the same

Experiment, put in the work, and try things

With each experiment, you pivot or persevere

Keep going, keep grinding, and keep learning

It’s ok to be at zero

When you’re at zero, your skill is the lowest it will ever be

You made mistakes?

Good

Those 7 people won’t mind

Learn

Get better

That way when you get your chance, you’re ready to make the most of it

Transformations start at zero

If you’re looking to change your company, guess what?

You’re starting from zero

This means, you don’t know how things are going to work

Many people make the mistake of trying to do too much too soon and push too hard

Start small, fail small

Get small wins, scale those

As you go through the process, you’ll start to figure out what works and what doesn’t

If you go too big too soon, don’t be surprised if it collapses and you end up with a big mess on your hands

And if you do that, fine

Dust yourself off, figure it out, and try again

I hope this helps you

I’d appreciate it if you’d share this message to help us all get out of zero

If you’re starting from zero and looking for help, book an introductory call with me

Let’s see if we’re a good fit for working together

https://calendly.com/toddcharron/introchat

Back to work