Business Emotions

You can learn every business tactic and still not use any of them.

If your emotions keep you from applying what you know, the marketing strategy, technology, or program idea will not create the result you want.

That is why I teach business emotions alongside the practical work of building a company. You need to know how to experience the feelings that come with entrepreneurship and how to create the feelings that help you act.

Business does not exempt you from the balance of positive and negative emotion. It gives you plenty of opportunities to practice.

Expect negative emotions to arrive

The four negative emotions I commonly experience in business are doubt, fear, frustration, and embarrassment.

I see them in my clients, too. They may appear repeatedly throughout your career.

That does not mean something is wrong with you. Your brain is trying to protect you from unfamiliar experiences, discomfort, and the risk of standing out.

When you expect those feelings, you can recognize them without deciding your business journey has gone wrong.

You do not need to avoid, buffer, or pretend they are absent. You need to notice and process them.

Doubt is not an instruction

As soon as you set a goal, your brain may tell you it will not work. You cannot do it. You will embarrass yourself.

Doubt presents itself as necessary information you should obey. But knowing it is likely to appear helps you prepare an answer.

Every time I attempt something big, I feel doubt. When I eventually succeed, even after many failed attempts, I have evidence that the doubt was wrong.

That makes it easier to doubt my doubt the next time.

Plan for the feeling rather than let it make the decision for you.

Listen to fear without handing it the outcome

Fear can ask you to slow down, pay attention, and be careful. I want you to acknowledge it.

But if you obey every fearful thought, you may never leave your home, much less build a company.

Thoughts create these emotions. Become aware enough to pause before taking action from them. Process the feeling, and decide what emotion you want driving your next action.

The result of obeying fear or doubt can be quitting, blaming, or giving up. You can have the feeling without choosing that result.

Let frustration be part of learning

Many things will not work. You will not know how to do everything. People may not sign up, and effort may not pay off the way you expected.

Of course that can feel frustrating.

Allow the feeling and keep learning. A child learning to walk gets frustrated, falls, and tries again. The frustration does not have to end the process.

Entrepreneurship gives you opportunities to develop that emotional strength. You are learning to work through your own reactions while building something new.

Be willing to feel embarrassed

Stepping outside what the group approves of can feel exposing.

You try something publicly. It does not work, or someone comments on it. Your thoughts about what people think generate embarrassment.

Much of the time, we imagine judgments that people are not actually making. Sometimes they really do say something critical.

Either way, embarrassment is an emotion you can experience and process. It is part of what you may be signing up for when you choose to put your work in the world.

Create courage alongside fear

The positive emotions I deliberately generate are courage, determination, positivity, and obligation.

Courage does not require fear to disappear. It is taking action while fear is present.

Imagine carrying a heavy purse of fear as you move forward. You can feel it and still act from courage.

In the Model, the emotion fueling your action matters. You can acknowledge fear while choosing courageous action toward your goal.

Use determination to keep trying

Determination is the willingness not to quit.

It means continuing to believe in yourself while evidence seems to argue against you. You keep trying through failure, embarrassment, and frustration.

When someone tells me they tried, I want to know whether they are still trying. Determination keeps the effort in the present.

You do not need every attempt to work before you decide to make another one.

Give positivity deliberate attention

Your brain can supply negative thoughts without being asked. Give positive thinking time on purpose.

Consider your assets, your capacity, the opportunities available, and the best-case scenario. Consider what you are learning even when you are not winning.

Talk about yourself and your business in a way that supports what you want to create. Notice the effect of repeatedly criticizing others or focusing conversations on everything you dislike.

Positivity needs conscious attention if the automatic negative thinking is loud.

Consider a genuine sense of obligation

When I was starting, I told myself that if I figured out how to get through the pain I was experiencing, I would share what I learned.

That sense of obligation helped me put my work out even when I was afraid of criticism.

I worried about grammar and typos in my book. Then I received a letter from Rondi describing how the book helped her change her relationship with food. It reminded me how important sharing the work could be.

Your obligation may be to people you can help, your family, or yourself. I do not mean guilt. I mean a genuine desire to contribute that helps you continue through difficult feelings.

Choose the right emotions for the work

You may want peace, joy, love, and relaxation in your life. But consider whether those are the emotions that will help you face the particular challenge of building a business.

Growth can create discomfort. Courage and determination may be better suited to helping you move through it.

Identify the negative feelings you expect and the positive feelings you want to generate. Listen to your emotions, understand the thoughts behind them, and process them. Then create the emotion that helps you take the action your goal requires.