Atychiphobia: Common Fear in Singaporean Entrepreneurs?

One of my pet questions to the Singaporean entrepreneurs we have recently interviewed is “What are your fears in becoming an entrepreneur?” Most of them responded with the following answer.

Before they began their enterprises, at one point of their lives, they will ask themselves the following question, “What if my business fails?” Once they can get over the threshold presented by this question, they will be able to start their enterprise. Most people will shudder with fear and give up the idea before they get started. If they do not have the fire in the belly compare to the foreigners coming here to find a living, the chances of giving up before trying are greater. So, for those including the policy makers who complained the lack of entrepreneurship in this country, the issue is cultural.

Someone told me that the problem of being atychiphobic (fear of failure) is a cultural characteristic of Singaporean entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact, Singaporeans call it “kiasi”, means fear of death in the Hokkien dialect. I beg to differ. While I acknowledged that most Singaporeans have this problem due to our efficient and productive culture, I have encountered the same problem is typical of the other nationalities I have worked with. They are equally or if not, more risk adverse compare to us. Atychiphobia is related to risk adversity for an entrepreneur. If you are afraid to fail, you are likely to be risk adverse.

From observing how some young Singaporean entrepreneurs present their pitches and push their business ideas, I came down to the following issues:

If you failed once, you are almost never going to try again

“It is part of my thesis that all our knowledge grows only through the correcting of our mistakes.”
– Karl Popper “Conjectures and Refutations”

Let’s start from the most common fear, “What if my business fails?”. There are many reasons for the failure of a startup. It can range from a poor business model to the idea being too ahead of its time. Some entrepreneurs fail because they don’t know how to manage cashflow carefullly or they fail in their fundraising efforts. Sometimes, the team is weak and are not proficient in execution. Personalities clash within the team is often presented as a common problem that leads to the disintegration of a startup. If you have hit most of these reasons for the failure of your startups, you should not fret, because it happens to most people who are engaged in building a startup.

The first question to ask yourself when you failed is, “Why did it fail in the first place?” When you ask that question, please do not lock yourself in self-pity. What does not kill you only makes you stronger. I remembered at the time when my first startup failed, I took out a piece of paper and analyzed all the reasons that led to its failure. I am not going to sugarcoat the experience by lying that I did not feel sad about that. Once I got all the reasons of failure, I went around around the networking sessions and started all over again. When I speak to the other entrepreneurs, I acknowledged that I failed the first time but I changed the discussion with them on the issue, “Do you think that startups which centre on this kind of industry will fail? How can we avoid that trap again?” Strangely, all the experienced biotech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists I spoke to started giving me advice and their experiences about similar startups which did not work. They also told me that to overcome the problem is to resolve several bottlenecks. So, using my facilitator role for most entrepreneurs, I went around to “shop” for an idea and looked for a team. The rest is history, because I did manage to build a startup and it has started running after I exited to return and served my bond in Singapore. No one knows whether the startup will succeed in the first phase, but at least you make it happen in the first place.

The solution to deal with the “failure” is to acknowledge it and then move on. You will be surprised that the entrepreneurial community (i.e. the successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors) prefer the young entrepreneurs to fail at least once. They tend to be forgiving if you don’t commit a crime or fail to deliver them something. That’s why some entrepreneurs manage to get their second chance because they did not lose their credibility.

You don’t stand by your ideas when you are challenged

“One could not be a successful scientist without realising that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow minded and dull but also just stupid.”
– James D. Watson “The Double Helix”

In Cialdini’s “Influence”, there are three powerful techniques that most people subconsciuously use to tear your idea to pieces: authority, social pressure and liking. It also happens in the academic circles as well. If you don’t believe me, go to an international science conference, you see an Asian academic being tore apart by a western counterpart even though the Asian is doing the right thing.

Let’s break the three concepts into something easier to understand by examples:
1. Authority: The investor will say, “I heard so and so expert said last week that this idea is not possible.” Notice the “so and so expert”.
2. Social Proof: The investor will say, “Everyone uses google as a search engine, what makes you think that your product will be able to capture 40% market share?” Notice the use of “everyone”
3. Liking: The investor will say, “The iPod looks pretty and presentable better than the Creative Zen player, and my daughter likes it. Why should I buy your mp3 player?” Notice the use of something someone you are close to like.

Most specialists (including myself) usually formulated a certain opinion in how we view our industry and ideas of startups. We possess the knowledge of why and how certain business ideas would work and succeed. If you are studying in a tertiary institution, you should check the experts out to understand the industry better. 99.9% of the time, most young entrepreneurs don’t know what they are talking about. We will try to be skeptical to your ideas. To convince us, you need to address those concerns and not back off when we challenge your ideas.

The rule of thumb is to stand by your ideas and that’s how you avoid failing. You try to make sure that you know all the mistakes which were made in the past, and not repeating them for your case.