About a year after I started my company, when I hadn’t put a lot of energy into it and was frustrated with myself and its lack of forward motion, something strange and random happened to me that really got me thinking. At a dinner party, a friend did a handwriting analysis on me and said that I feared success. At first I thought that was just silly; who fears success? After I sat with it a while, though, I started to realize that my friend might be on to something.

Most people will acknowledge a fear of failure. Who wants to admit defeat? Doesn’t everyone want to be successful? The truth is, however, that sometimes being an accomplished business leader is just as fear-inducing as never getting anywhere. For me, my lingering thought was, “What if someone finds out I DON’T know everything?”

Fear of success and fear of failure originate in the same place: your comfort zone.  While comfort seems welcoming and, well, comfortable, it’s not the best place in which to live your life – or business. It’s sometimes said that one is either moving forward or dying; staying primarily in your comfort zone certainly doesn’t allow you to move forward. So where does that leave you and your business?

In order to keep your business vital and forward-thinking, you need to stay just on the outside of that comfort zone. Know that, no matter what issue is presented to you by clients or in the process of growing your business, you will be able to find help. No business owner is an island. The truth is that you need to have a strong group of colleagues with whom you will share your fears and successes. When you don’t know the answer, you can find it! The Internet is a wonderful thing, and your fellow networkers and friends will offer an amazing resource.

Sometimes, just the knowledge of that fear and that you control your destiny can give you enough power to overcome it.