Have you ever been too afraid to try for an opportunity because you feared that you wouldn’t get it? In this talk, you’ll learn more about some of the causes of fear of failure, along with clear strategies that you can use to overcome it and advance within your tech career. Fear of failure is very common, especially among women who are underrepresented in tech. You should attend this session if you’d like to learn how to develop more confidence, build a strong support network, and avoid the pitfalls of perfectionism and procrastination. We’ll use relevant examples from TV and pop culture to illustrate how you can overcome your fear or failure and further develop your potential as a tech leader.

1. Overcoming Your Fear of Failure
Olivia Liddell
Cloud Training Specialist at Cloudbakers
@oliravi

2. Key Questions
What is fear of failure?
How can you recognize it?
How can you overcome it?

3. About Me
Cloud Training Specialist at Cloudbakers
Former Chicago Public Schools teacher
Lots of experience with being afraid to fail ---
and learning from it

4. The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment

5. Results
Stronger willpower
with the marshmallow
as children
Greater resiliency
and persistence as
adults
Greater resiliency and
persistence as adults

6. Giving Up Sooner
Eating the marshmallow
Allowing fear of failure to
hold you back

7. Choosing to Persist
Waiting for the bigger reward
Making progress and
achieving your goals

8. “…that irrational fear that we
will not succeed.”
TIMOTHY A. PYCHYL
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT CARLETON UNIVERSITY

9. Self-
sabotage
Imposter
Syndrome
Feeling
inadequate
Reluctance
to try new
things
Procrastination

10. Possible Outcomes
 Avoiding risk-taking
 Negative impact on group collaborations
 Missing out on opportunities
 Career stagnation

11. “The most concrete thing that neuroscience
tells us is that when the fear system of the
brain is active, exploratory activity and risk-
taking are turned off.”
GREGORY BERNS
PSYCHOLOGIST AND NEUROECONOMIST AT EMORY UNIVERSITY

12. Identify your strengths.

15. Identify your current strengths –
and also begin to develop new ones.

16. Reflected Best Self Exercise
Select 3-5 respondents and ask for feedback.
“I am at my best when I…”
Identify patterns and trends.
Compose your self portrait.
Redesign your job.

17. Build and rely on a support network.

20. When building new relationships:
 Focus on quality over quantity.
 Set realistic expectations for the process of
meeting new people.
 Remind yourself of how a network can help you.

21. Making the most of your support network:
 Ask for help when you need it.
 Seek out mentoring opportunities.
 Offer your strengths as resources to others.

22. Redefine failure and learn from it.

23. “The view you adopt for yourself
profoundly affects the way you
lead your life.”
CAROL DWECK
AUTHOR OF MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS

24. Source: https://medium.com/leadership-motivation-and-impact/fixed-v-growth-mindset-902e7d0081b3

25. Switching to a Growth Mindset:
 Reflect on a specific time when you previously
failed or gave up. For that situation:
 What is something that you did well?
 What would you consider doing differently?

26. Break tasks down into
smaller pieces.

27. Learn how to read Arabic in 2 minutes!

28. aa
b

29. Arabic is written and read from
right to left.

30. aab
father

31. baab
door

32. ‫مرحبا‬!
‫مدينة‬ ‫في‬ ‫هنا‬ ‫نحن‬‫ناشفيل‬.
Hello!
We are here in the city of Nashville.

33. 1. Identify your current strengths – and also begin
to develop new ones.
2. Build and rely on a support network.
3. Redefine failure and learn from it.

34. “Let’s go invent tomorrow,
rather than worrying about what
happened yesterday.”
STEVE JOBS

35. Overcoming Your Fear of Failure
Olivia Liddell
Cloud Training Specialist at Cloudbakers
@oliravi