Why you’re so afraid to launch — and how to overcome your fears

Today’s question is from Wendy. She asks:

“Do you have any advice for those of us who struggle to launch something out of fear of having to maintain a product indefinitely?”

First, let me translate what she’s saying:

“I’m afraid that if I launch this product, it is going to be so successful that I’m going to have to keep it alive for the rest of my life. I’ll have to pass it on to my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I can’t do it. I can’t be responsible for creating another GE. What should I do?”

Jokes aside, I completely understand that you don’t want to create another shackle in your life. All of us have obligations. It could be a mortgage. It could be kids, parents, business, whatever.

I get that when you’re creating a business, a lot of it is about creating freedom, not shackles, for yourself.

The real reason you’re afraid of starting something new

Let me tell you a few ways that I think about this. First of all, recognize that our mind plays tricks on us. It doesn’t want us to create a business and launch a product, because it’s scary, it’s different, and we’re opening ourselves up to vulnerability.

But our mind doesn’t want to come out and say that because it’s politically incorrect. Instead, it uses all these different strategies to trick us. It makes us think, “What will people say? Nobody will think I’m an expert. I’m an impostor. I don’t have enough experience.”

And, in Wendy’s case, “What if I have to maintain this product indefinitely?”

It’s a weird, obscure way that our mind tricks us.

Don’t let your fears hold you back — test them

If you were to break it out rationally, it would be simple: Your biggest problem is going to be getting customers to buy your product, not maintaining it indefinitely.

Now, if you decide one day you don’t want to maintain something, what do you do? You send an email to people saying, “Thanks, I’ve decided to close down this product.” End of story.

We did this recently. I created a product that was for CEOs. It was very expensive: $10,000 to $25,000. We had a bunch of people join, and I had their money in the bank. We had the logo and everything set to go.

Then I realized that, for strategic reasons, it wasn’t the product that we needed to create. And so we made a decision to give everyone a refund.

I wrote them an email. And I was pretty scared even though I’ve been in business a long time. I was scared because they were our top students. They had paid us a lot of money, and I was refunding it and saying, “I made a mistake.”

One thing I did, which went a long way, was to say, “Many of you have already booked travel. You’ve booked hotels. We’re going to take care of all those fees. If you’re not able to get something refunded, send it to us. We will take care of it.”

I waited to see what kind of responses would come in.

The first email said, “Wow. Thank you for this note. I’ve never been so disappointed to get $10,000 back in my checking account.”

That was a moment of relief washing over me. Many others said, “Totally appreciate it. Next time you launch this, I’m first in line.”

It turned out that a lot of my fears were up in my head. In reality, the marketplace is the ultimate decider.

In other words, if you want to launch a business, go ahead. Don’t let your fears hold you back.

The people who actually become successful are also afraid. But the difference is that they actually push through and test those fears to see if they’re real.

What it takes to go from selling a $4.95 ebook to a $12,000 product

The first product I ever sold was a $4.95 ebook. I had so little confidence in it, I didn’t even set up a fulfillment system. People would buy, and I’d email them the PDF.

But that first launch taught me a lot about marketing, pricing, and positioning. Later, I applied those lessons when I sold products for $1,000, $2,000, and even $12,000.