We have all been there. Feeling caged and unable to move forward due to real or perceived fears. But what if you realized that the cage was unlocked, and all you had to do was walk out? Zahra Al-Harazi, founder of Foundry Communications and UNICEF’s Canadian Ambassador, explains how entrepreneurs can overcome these boundaries. “There’s no lock on the cage,” she says, “No matter what cage you place yourself in or where others may put you, there’s never a lock there.”
Growing up in Yemen, she didn’t always subscribe to this idea. She moved to Canada with her children in 1996, where she became a stay at home mom. “I didn’t have any ambition and didn’t think I could really do much,” she admits. Upon realizing that this feeling wasn’t a regional thing, she began to think of ways to overcome it.
Fear had been holding her back from a variety of things, but she decided she didn’t have to be stuck there. She went on to live by this and share this philosophy at conferences and seminars across North America. Although she was mildly acrophobic, she took up a friend’s offer to go skydiving. “I threw up as soon as I landed,” she laughs, “But I did it.”
In order to escape the “cage”, Zahra found value in developing core values for herself and her business. “By developing these values and exemplifying them in everything you do, it allows you to live a more free life,” she says. For example, one of her core values states simply ‘Be Curious’. By consciously living that principle, she allows room for her curiosity to reign supreme and lead her to places where she may have once been afraid to go. “The fear never leaves. But you learn to work around it,” she says.
Another way to escape this fear is to overcome the reluctance to ask for assistance. “I have thirty mentors. I go to people for different things I need help with,” she says. When she was first starting out, she began to cultivate a tribe by asking for help.
“I learned how to be vulnerable and using that vulnerability to get out of this cage,” she recalls. When asked if she’s sometimes afraid to ask for help because she doesn’t want to “weak” or “ill-informed”, she admits that she does have these feelings sometimes. “However, I’ve learned that vulnerability can be contagious,” she says.
A tribe is undoubtedly the strongest tool in any entrepreneurs’ arsenal. When it comes to networking and discovering that tribe, she recommends that people develop a UVP (unique value proposition) and learn how to be of service to others in an authentic way. Additionally, she urges others to never discount someone prematurely, “Everyone has something to bring to the table.”
What “cage” have you locked yourself in? Is there a certain person that could help you get out of that cage? What can you bring to the table to overcome these fears? Let us know by Tweeting us at @Wisenapkin