I gave a keynote talk this weekend at a conference that addressed the deeper reasons why women undersell themselves. I call it “The Seven Earning Challenges Women Must Embrace”. (It’s a fabulous talk, but I need a catchier title…) Afterwards, as I was talking informally with the audience about some of these deeper psychological reasons women underearn, a woman raised her hand to say, “I just realized that if I don’t start, I won’t fail. If I really get going with my business, I’m not sure what will happen.” I’ve heard versions of this from numerous women. We are so afraid of failure and what it must say about us personally. Coupled with our drive for perfectionism, it DOES feel intimidating to launch a business, or start offering a new service. What if it doesn’t work? What if no one wants it or no one signs up? It can feel like the time you threw a party and almost no one showed up. You wish you could take back all the invitations.

The truth is that if you do launch something, it might not work. Gasp! Yes, it’s true. To make it easier to get going, I recommend we change our definition of success.

Stop measuring success by the results your new initiative achieves. Start defining success as the guts it takes to put out something new.

You are successful if you attempt to launch a new service. When you put yourself out there, that is a success. If it works, that is a SECOND success. Whenever we put ourselves and our businesses out there, we should clap ourselves on the back and say, “Yes! I’m doing it! I’m successful! I’ve put myself out there.” The results will be what they will be. It’s true that if you don’t start, you won’t fail. But you won’t move ahead either. And wonderful possibilities await.