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Exhaustion, indecision, not being truly seen as the brilliant, powerful woman that you are.

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Shark Tank Ah Ha You Need to Know (About Doubt and Paranoia)

By Amira Alvarez

Last night I was watching SHARK TANK. It was an old episode that I had recorded.

An already successful entrepreneur pitched and was extraordinarily optimistic about even further success. She was putting 20x current valuation on her company. Every time they asked her about what deals she actually had in place, what her numbers actually were, she talked about all the wonderful companies and distributors who *want* to do business with her, all the interest she was getting.

This is enthusiastic. This is believing. All of that is positive and critical to running a successful business. BUT she couldn’t actually point to the orders. She couldn’t back up her claims of turning into a $10million dollar business next year, much less a $20 million company. She was doing well, making money, all of that great and nothing to sneeze at. Yet, when asked to substantiate her projections, she couldn’t.

You know what Barbara Corcoran said? “She’s missing the doubt card.” That woke me up!

Barbara said when she was in her twenties and building her real estate empire she ALWAYS questioned herself. ALWAYS. She always doubted and that served her. That helped her make good business decisions.

In an instant, Robert Herjavec chimed in with, “All entrepreneurs are paranoid.” (His words clearly influenced by his IT security background.) But still…

Doubt?? Paranoia??

After picking my jaw up off the ground and having an ah-ha moment with my man, I felt that delighted feeling wash over me.

There was something so comforting in having confirmation that even über, über, UBER successful (and seemingly confident) entrepreneurs have this same experience.

This was a complete re-frame on doubt and paranoia and how they serve us.

  • Instead of pushing doubt away, let it serve you.
  • Instead of resisting your doubt, appreciate what it’s telling you.
  • Instead of saying “it’s bad” or “I need to feel more confident”, allow it to help you right now.
  • Instead of thinking that doubt and confidence are mutually exclusive, hold them both as necessary components.

These are not new messages. The coin simply dropped in a different way.

These two ultra successful folks didn’t let the doubt or paranoia stop them.

They used it as part of their discernment practice. They integrated it in as a tool to building their empires. Duuuuude! I love that.

Amira

 

 

 

P.S. The quotes of Barbara Corcoran and Robert Herjavec are NOT actual quotes, but are paraphrased.

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