By Alex R. Thiersch, JD, Founder/Director of the American Med Spa Association (AmSpa)

I have a mantra that I say to myself often—"Do that which you are afraid to do." I didn't always think this way; in fact, facing my fear is something I struggled with at the beginning of my career and had to take steps to overcome. Everybody has fear, but if you walk toward the things that cause you to be afraid, you can go farther than you previously imagined.

In AmSpa's latest Medical Spa Insider podcast, industry experts Louis Frisina and Tim Sawyer spend some time talking about how they overcame fears early in their careers, and how it was one of their keys to success. "What happens with anything in life that you fear," said Sawyer, "once you conquer that, that becomes your nirvana. Because you walked in fear of it, you overcame it, and now you own it."

Most of the time—in business and in life—you will find success if you can overcome the things that make you afraid. People often are afraid to open their own businesses, because they're scared of the financial investment and relatively high rate of attrition. They're scared to pursue a particular marketing angle because it costs too much money or it goes against traditional marketing tactics.

Sometimes, when you have an idea or are presented with an opportunity, you begin to pursue it and fear takes over. It causes you to pause. You have a gut feeling that tells you that the direction that frightens you is the right way to go, but for whatever reason, you're disinclined to make that commitment. It's that one second when you're getting ready to step into uncharted territory and you suddenly second-guess everything that you know to be true. When you're in business, you need to overcome that fear. In my experience, most success comes on the other side of it.

Entrepreneurs who can recognize the moment when that fear takes place tend to be more successful than those who can't. Many times, people are so egotistical or ignorant that they don't even identify this moment when it occurs, so they blindly move in a different direction. A good businessperson, on the other hand, will understand that it's a project worth pursuing, even though he or she is a bit afraid of the commitment it will require, and take the necessary steps to actually work through it.

This can be the difference between success and failure, and it's a very thin line. Those who waver just a bit and wait to see how things develop before pursuing a course of action likely will never convince themselves that there's a good time to act.

In almost every industry, you can identify the people who have the guts to walk toward the thing that frightens them. They put in the time and work it takes to overcome the fear in their minds and the objections of others, and in many cases, they end up becoming much more successful than the people who were telling them to give up on a particular pursuit.

At AmSpa's Boot Camps, we teach medical aesthetics professionals how to succeed in this industry. Facing your fear is a big part of that, because there is so much competition that you really need to be determined and take that scary step into the unknown, because if you're in it, you need to be in it to win it. You can't go halfway, because there is no doubt that if you don't pursue a new and exciting direction at your medical spa, one of your competitors will.

Click here to learn more about our upcoming Boot Camps and to register to join us at one. We can't make facing your fear any easier for you, but we can help you learn how to recognize turning points and address them with the confidence you need to move forward in the medical aesthetics industry.