“Doubt can protect us from foolish decisions, but when we allow it to become fear, it can steal opportunities before we ever have the chance to lose them.” – MJ Martin
The Enemy Within
William Shakespeare captured one of the great paradoxes of human behaviour in Measure for Measure: “Our doubts are traitors, and makes us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” The Folger Shakespeare Library confirms the passage occurs when Isabella doubts her ability to influence events and Lucio urges her to discover what power she actually possesses. (Folger Shakespeare Library)
More than four centuries later, the lesson remains remarkably modern. Failure certainly costs us something, but so does refusing to try. The difference is that the cost of failure is visible while the cost of hesitation is usually invisible. We remember the business that failed, the job we did not get, or the idea that went nowhere. We rarely see the alternate future created by the telephone call we never made, the investment we postponed, the relationship we never pursued, or the idea we were too cautious to propose.
Canada and the Fear of Failure
This is particularly relevant in Canada. Innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth require people willing to move before certainty arrives. Research published by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada found that fear of failure affected 50.7 percent of the broader population studied, compared with 40.1 percent of nascent entrepreneurs. The people actually attempting to build businesses were less constrained by fear than those standing outside entrepreneurship. (ISED Canada)
The Business Development Bank of Canada makes the argument even more forcefully. Drawing on its work with tens of thousands of Canadian entrepreneurs, BDC argues that risk is inseparable from progress and that Canada needs to become more comfortable with intelligent risk-taking. Its central message is compelling: the fear of remaining where we are should sometimes become greater than the fear of failing. (BDC.ca)
Doubt Is a Warning Light, Not a Steering Wheel
None of this means doubt is useless. Doubt is like a warning light on the dashboard of your automobile. When it illuminates, you should investigate. You should not necessarily abandon the journey.
Healthy doubt asks questions. Do I have enough information? What could go wrong? Can I reduce the risk? What is my contingency plan? Destructive doubt reaches a very different conclusion: because something might go wrong, I should do nothing.
The distinction matters. Courage is not acting without fear. Courage is examining fear, managing the legitimate risks and proceeding when the potential reward justifies the uncertainty.
Canadian-born psychologist Albert Bandura’s influential work on self-efficacy helps explain why. Self-efficacy concerns our belief that we can successfully perform the actions necessary to achieve an objective. Research building on Bandura’s work has linked stronger self-efficacy with achievement, resilience, leadership behaviour and other positive outcomes. (American Psychological Association)
What Are We Really Afraid Of?
Perhaps Shakespeare’s challenge should therefore become personal. What opportunity are you currently postponing because you genuinely lack sufficient information, and what opportunity are you postponing simply because you are afraid?
Would failure truly be catastrophic, or merely uncomfortable? If you attempted something and failed, what would you learn? More importantly, five years from now, which regret would trouble you more: having tried and failed, or never discovering whether you could have succeeded?
Doubt deserves a seat at the table. It should never be given the chair.
Because opportunities rarely arrive carrying guarantees. Sometimes the greatest risk is not the possibility that we might lose.
It is the possibility that, by fearing to attempt, we never discover what we might have won.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.