How Being Yourself is Just as Important as Believing in Yourself
The following is adapted from Two Brown Envelopes by Hazem Mulhim.
One of the greatest things that you can do as an entrepreneur to ensure your success is to simply believe in yourself. If you don’t, no one else will. There will be times when nothing seems to go right, when the gloom is unremitting, when there is no sign of light at the end of the tunnel. But believe me, if you believe in yourself, you can overcome the biggest setbacks.
A key part of believing in yourself is being yourself. Authenticity is critical to success. It breeds respect and trust. Yes, of course, you should admire other people — their achievements, their successes. But don’t try to be them, don’t try to be someone else, someone you’re not. Because when you’re down, your mask will slip.
Indeed, it is often when you are at your lowest point that you find out who you really are and what you’re made of. If, as an entrepreneur, you are doing your job properly, there are many such moments when you are forced to face an uncomfortable truth or deal with the painful consequences of your actions.
I’ve been there, and pulled through, because I believed that I could do it.
Failure is an Option
Few companies tolerate failure. In these highly competitive times, CEOs tend to be impatient with people who underperform on a routine basis. Yet, ironically, some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs say they have learned more from their failures than their successes. In other words, if they hadn’t in some way “failed,” they wouldn’t be where they are today.
Take Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. He is on record as saying that as well as posting many successes, his company has endured “billions of dollars of failures” along the way. Meanwhile, his rival for the title of world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, has tweeted, “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
So failure is an option. In their book The Wisdom of Failure, Laurence G. Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey observe that “real failure doesn’t come from making mistakes; rather, it comes from avoiding errors at all possible cost, from the fear of taking risks to the inability to grow.” For the avoidance of doubt, they add, “Being mistake-free is not success.”
I couldn’t agree more. Equally, it is important to learn from failure. If you make the same mistake twice, then you really have failed. I certainly know that I have made many mistakes in my life, but on each occasion, I found a way to develop new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things differently — and better.
Believe That You Can, and You Will
I don’t have a simple formula for success. I don’t know anyone who does (although I know many people who claim they do). I do, however, have a formula for learning the lessons of failure. Ultimately, failure is the most common experience of the entrepreneur. Those who overcome it, they survive. Those who don’t, don’t.
Learning to believe in myself as an entrepreneur is something that I have learned the hard way. I now take great pleasure in passing it on — in speeches, MBA classes, and lectures. I know, of course, that there is no substitute for learning this lesson from the real lived experience of failure. When running a business, there is no easy way.
Self-belief is vital for any entrepreneur. Time and time again, you are told no when you believe the answer can be yes. When you push and push back, and find that the answer is, indeed, yes, you feel vindicated. And the next time someone says no, you push again. But sometimes, the answer really is no. If you continue to push back, then you are lost. It is at that moment that self-belief becomes hubris.
For more advice on how to find success through failure, you can find Two Brown Envelopes on Amazon.
Hazem Mulhim is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and speaker. A Palestinian whose family hails from Halhul in the West Bank, he was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Jordan, Kuwait and England. He studied medical electronics in Bulgaria and business management at INSEAD. In 1984, after working in Orlando, Florida, he founded a high-street computer store in Jordan modeled on Radio Shack. Since then, he has transformed this business, now called Eastnets, into a global software solutions company. Hazem also runs Rewell, a charity supporting women-run entrepreneurial projects in the Jordan valley. Hazem holds dual Jordanian-Belgian citizenship and divides his time between Dubai, Amman and Brussels.
