2. Not trying at all. Sometimes fearful people won't even try. If it's something new, forget it! How can you get best out of yourself and others if you don't even try? And how can you innovate if you don't try new things?

3. Anger. When your fear manifests itself as anger, very bad things happen. You alienate your family, friends, and employees. And, you become unpleasant to be around, which is a good way to lose customers.

4. Overcompensation. Instead of getting angry, some people overcompensate. By that I mean that they are so afraid that they will make a mistake that they will go overboard to make sure that they don't, wasting time, money, and other resources.

So what's cure? Self-confidence. That's easy to say but hard to get. The good news is that books and tapes are out there that will help you. Find them. Study them.

Constantly remind yourself that nothing worthwhile happens without some failure along way. If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough. Besides, you can never completely fail because, in your attempt, you succeeded in overcoming fear of failing.

If you have to be afraid of something, be afraid of being afraid. Nothing will kill your dream faster.

That's when I decided to use my "secret weapon". I realized that I was spinning my wheels, that there must be a solution that I just couldn't see, and that I would be able to figure it out more quickly if I put it away and let my subconscious work on it for me.

Sure enough, within a few hours I had four new ideas to try. At 2:00 a.m. I woke up with another one, which turned out to be solution to problem.

It's kind of ironic isn't it? Sometimes best way to solve a problem is to stop working on it!

The secret is to take your mind off of it. Go on to something else. It doesn't have to be an activity that is related to problem; in fact I believe that larger difference in activities, better your result will be.

My wife is good at this. We often have animal-related problems to solve such as how to take care of them when we need to go somewhere, or how to keep dogs away from flower pots, or how to allow cats on deck but not out into forest. She thinks about it a while and then goes on to next thing. Before you know it, she has perfect solution; it just pops into her mind while she is doing something that has nothing whatsoever to do with problem.

Try it. It really works!