I was invited to deliver the keynote at Bootstrap Maryland last week.  I talked about the “internal” side of entrepreneurship – everything going on inside the entrepreneur.

Usually we focus on (clean, sterile, safe) external factors such as cash flow, hiring, support, traffic or marketing, but the messy emotional stuff (hopes, dreams, fears) doesn’t get talked about even though it’s critical to whether or not you succeed!

Do you take action to move your business forward?

Do you lose time to procrastination?

Are you ever paralyzed by fear, or overwhelmed and unsure what to work on?

The difference between fear/procrastination/hesitation and taking massive action is the difference between success and failure.

In any case, the event was great, lots of fantastic people there planning or working on startups.  Based on the number of people that came up to me afterward and related similar stories, the talk was really well-received.  Pushing forwards despite fear seems like a common challenge.

Photo credit: Jeff Tong

Photo credit: Juan Chordo

Topics: Productivity April 12th, 2010