Is too much caution holding you back from business success?

Are you being held back from business success because you're avoiding things you need to do?

Of course, when you're running a business it's important to be prudent. Prudence is defined as "caution in managing your activity." But alongside sensible caution, it's sometimes necessary to take a little risk.

If it was easy, everybody would do it. That's why successful businesses are the ones that actually take a little bit of risk in order to move themselves forward. Some people are put off because of fear of mistakes.

William Shakespeare said: "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."

In other words if we allow ourselves to be victims of self-doubt, we deny ourselves the potential rewards of success.

When most people look back on their lives, they don't regret the risks they did take. They regret the risks they could have taken, the things they could have tried.

One of the ways to get over undue risk aversion is to practice taking small risks. Yes, some of them will go wrong. But the better you get at taking risks and making decisions, the more success you're likely to have in the future.

It's important to remember that once you start taking action towards your goal, there is no such thing as failure; there is only feedback.

Some feedback will be negative. But you need persistence. For every problem you come up against, there is going to be a solution.

In sport, you often find that the people with the greatest records and the most success are also the people who've made the most mistakes.

They've gotten it wrong more often than they've gotten it right. But because they've been consistently trying, they're getting better and have more chances of success. The most successful people are the ones who got it wrong the most.

It's true in business as well. As Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says: "Winners are not afraid of losing, but losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success."

Many people are held back from taking risks by the fear of rejection. If that applies to you, follow the "SW4 Principle." If you're worried about somebody saying 'no' to you, think SW4. "Some Will. Some Won't. So What? Someone else is Waiting."

If you focus on what you want ' people saying yes ' you'll have more chance of success.

So you have decide: Is your dream of business success worth taking a little risk?