Fear of Failure

People tend to equate fear in the professional arena with a fear of failure. It seems obvious, for if you fail, you might lose your job. If you lose your job, then your life, with all its bought or borrowed creature comforts, will inevitably and drastically change. Do you see failure as doom, or an opportunity to best yourself and the task you originally failed? Does it motivate you? More often than not, the assumed punishment for failure is so great that there is a fear to try at all. Sometimes, though, the fear of failure can propel you to succeed beyond that which you thought yourself capable.

            There have been several studies regarding failure and its effects on others. A set of studies by Jocelyn Bélanger, Arie Kruglanski, Marc-André Lafrenière, and Robert Vallerand posit that, rather than failure being the end-stage, “success information on self-defining tasks has little effects on performance, [whereas] failure leads to an increase in subsequent performance” (Bélanger 180). The phenomenon is known as achievement motivation, and the title captures the basics of what it means: it is one’s own perspective on what motivates them, manifested as approach or avoidance tendencies. Approach tendencies and avoidance tendencies are the ways people view the options they have. Approach-achievement motives are positive choices, wherein people choose to maximize their potential successes because they view their options as being good or positive, whereas avoidance-achievement motives focus on that fear of failure. They choose to minimize the likelihood of failing rather than taking that leap of faith that everything will work out in the end. 

Even worse, rather than minimize the likelihood of failure, some people just shut down. Rather than attempting anything at all, a study of 1400 Japanese high school students exhibited high levels of “helplessness and self-handicapping…when students were low in success orientation and high in fear of failure… These findings were replicated…with 643 Australian students and extended to measures of truancy, disengagement, and self-reported academic achievement” (De Castella). This phenomenon does not simply disappear during adulthood, and as proven by the vastly different cultures studied, is not regional. The studies included by De Castella are extremely useful because they shed light on the difficult problems involving failure and perception. The more some people fail, the more they believe that they are helpless and incapable of actually turning out anything good or productive.

Additionally, there is a correlation between fear of failure and the emergence of maladaptive tactics such as the previously mentioned self-handicapping and helplessness. The study posted by De Castella finds that “in the absence of firm achievement goals, fear of failure is associated with a range of maladaptive self-protective strategies” (De Castella). There is a “lack of motivation to succeed” present in those that experience failure and who do not have a “strong desire to excel” (De Castella). The essence of this argument is that those who fail become stuck in a downward spiral of losing motivation to try again. Common sense seems to support this theory, as well.

The evidence shows that failure is associated with low self-esteem and low productivity; however, I believe that these studies ignore the fact that failure affects yourself as well as people’s perception of you. That perception, real or imagined, will further affect your willingness to get up and try again. Many unemployed people lose heart after being jobless for some time; the longer they take to find a new job, the more there is a perceived “failure” on behalf of the employee. The perception seems to be that surely, if they were successful, they would still be employed or would have been rehired quickly.

Although I agree with the aforementioned studies to a point, I cannot accept the overall conclusion that there is simply one type or another, those who are set up to fail and those that will inevitably succeed simply thanks to positive choices. Boxer Muhammad Ali claimed, “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.” It is this sentiment that I find to be most realistic: those that have tried and failed realize that they have nowhere to go but up, and it is this realization that allows them to take more risks. Once you know how far you can fall, and that you can come back from it, you are willing to take more risks in the future. This acceptance of failure as a necessary route to growth allows for a broader understanding of the world and one’s potential place in it.

 ~Andrea Harsma

Works Cited

Bélanger, Jocelyn J., Marc-André K. Lafrenière, Robert J. Vallerand, and Arie W. Kruglanski. 

"Driven by Fear: The Effect of Success and Failure Information on Passionate Individuals' Performance." Journal

of Personality and Social Psychology 104.1 (2013): 180-95. 

De Castella, Krista, Don Byrne, and Martin Covington. "Unmotivated or Motivated to Fail? A 

Cross-cultural Study of Achievement Motivation, Fear of Failure, and Student Disengagement." Journal of Educational Psychology 105.3 (2013): 861-80.

Fear of Success

Many of us have heard of the fear of failure, the concept of which is easy to understand. We are conditioned to fear failure from early childhood as a way to encourage hard work and success. However, there is also a phenomenon in the fear of success: a fear that prevents people from standing up and speaking out for themselves, or from actually putting forth the effort and risking their current way of life for a potentially better outcome. Many would much rather adhere to the status quo than actually risking their egos and their livelihoods on what-ifs; it’s certainly easier than the alternative.

For those that choose to be productive and ambitious, though, there are certainly discouraging factors. These hard workers can find their efforts undermined by coworkers or even bosses that do not like that someone is being a little too ambitious. Joshua Ferris’ “Then We Came to the End” tells the story of a group of overpaid corporate workers in the advertising industry during the beginning of downsizing. Told in the first-person plural “we,” the narrative adds an air of inclusiveness and anonymity to the thoughts and actions of the whole group. The narrators tend to snipe at any members that choose to do their jobs and perform admirably, such as Joe Pope. Joe Pope is the standard hardworking individual who just wants to do his job while he’s there, rather than gossip, and he is shunned by his coworkers for doing so. Not only do they fear success, they fear the success of others – so much so that they will, at the least, badmouth them and, at the most, sabotage them and their efforts to be successful themselves. These characters and their responses have foundations in reality.

The fear of success is what often keeps people from pursuing their actual dreams. Rather than, say, going to nursing school or moving to India, office workers tend to stay sedentary. It’s safer, after all, to not risk that guaranteed paycheck or potentially trigger emotional and financial instability within the family. To perform the basic tasks required to keep a job requires much less effort and much less stress than that brought on by risking it all over an unknown. However, the dissatisfaction felt because they continue to labour in a workplace that they do not enjoy is often taken out on their coworkers – in addition to friends, families, and pets. Rather than striving to achieve the American Dream, many choose not to “rock the boat” of a nice, tidy income and a nice, tidy home life that consists of a shared mortgage, a couple of kids, and a dog.

In addition to the avoidance of taking risks, people tend to fear change. Really, it’s with good reason: when you have an image or reputation to uphold, often one tied into the ever-elusive American Dream, you are far less comfortable taking risks that may change it. The risks and uncertainty that start out making you feel uncomfortable grow in your mind until they terrify you. Martin Zwilling of Forbes has explored this phenomenon as well. He states that these fears often masquerade “as a somewhat less embarrassing, equally deadly, ‘fear of failure’” (Zwilling). He goes on to state that those failures people are so afraid of are actually required for growth. In making this argument, Zwilling urges people to take the chance anyway, despite the fear.

Conventional wisdom has it that fear of failure is far easier to rationalize to peers and to loved ones than fear of success; many would much rather continue to just squeak by than risk a change of lifestyle that may fail. Worse yet, once you’ve begun to raise the bar, it’s nearly impossible to go back; those newly-raised expectations are harder to hide from. The thought that any decision they make may require them to actually perform additional work in order to survive or succeed may, then, discourage them from attempting to pass that certification exam or apply for that promotion. It’s fear of success, but also fear of having to work hard to maintain the new responsibilities and new image that comes with that new success.

It’s not impossible to change your mindset and overcome these fears; often, it just requires saying “yes” and being willing to put yourself out there regardless of insecurities telling you that it’s a bad idea. Slow down and realize that it’s okay to tell people yes or no sometimes, even if it makes you uncomfortable.  It’s okay to be ambitious and reach for new tiers of success. Take a leap of faith and trust that you are strong enough to succeed.

~Andrea Harsma 

Works Cited

Cain, Molly. "5 Ways To Conquer Your Fear Of Failure." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 23 Apr.

2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.

Ferris, Joshua. Then We Came to the End: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown and, 2007. Print.

Zwilling, Martin. "Why Some Entrepreneurs Undermine Their Own Success." Forbes. Forbes

Magazine, 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.