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.

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 and creativity
 Negative impact on group collaborations
 Missing out on opportunities
 Career stagnation

11. Identify your strengths.

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

15. 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.

16. Redefine failure by shifting towards
a growth mindset.

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

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

19. Shifting Towards 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?

20. Break tasks down into
smaller pieces.

21. Learn how to read Arabic in 2 minutes!

22. aa
b

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

24. aab
father

25. baab
door

26. ‫مرحبا‬!
‫إدنبرة‬ ‫مدينة‬ ‫في‬ ‫هنا‬ ‫نحن‬.
Hello! We are here in the city of
Edinburgh.

27. 1. Identify your current strengths – and also begin
to develop new ones.
2. Redefine failure by shifting towards a growth
mindset.
3. Break tasks down into smaller pieces.

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

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