Have you ever seen a 110 pound telephone? It's quite possible that you own one.

Go ahead and reach for your nearest phone right now. It doesn't matter if it's the phone on your desk or that nifty, gadget-laden cellular device stuffed in your pocket. Get a good hold on it. Feels like just a few ounces, doesn't it? Now, with phone in hand, start thinking about people you'd like to call about doing business with you. Think about your next door neighbor, your friends, even your family members. Think about how you're going to call them and ask them to get with you about your business. Think about how scared you will be that you will say the wrong thing. Think about how nervous you are at the thought that they'll laugh at you, say bad things behind your back or, worse yet, tell you "no" when you ask them to take a look at your company. Think about the fear you'll feel if they actually do say "yes" and think about all the trouble you'll have with them down the road if your business ever fails or if they don't like your service. Yes, think about all of these things while you're holding your phone in your hand and then stare in amazement at that little communication tool as suddenly it swells in weight from a few ounces to 110 pounds. It is now so heavy that you can't wait to put it down. It is now so bulky that you don't dare pick it up and even try to make a call to a prospective customer. With hope that you will be able to make your calls at another time when it's not so early, not so late, when people aren't so busy, etc., etc., etc., you lay down your phone and do not make the call.

What you have just read could be called "the heavy phone syndrome." Practically anyone who has ever started a business has dealt with it. Have you? If so, what do you think? Did I describe the process fairly accurately? What started out as an enthusiastic desire to get on the phone and tell everyone you know how great your company is has devolved into a quaking fear of what those prospects might say combined with a feeling of guilt for not having enough courage to go ahead and make the call.

The source of "the heavy phone syndrome" is easy to find. It's that area between our ears. From the moment of excitement about our business to the moment at which we put down the phone, an amazing transformation has occurred in our heads. We have allowed our thoughts to take us from a certainty of success to a certainty of failure. We have run every possible negative scenario through our brains. There was no reason for it. The business we believed in a few moments earlier is just as great now as it was then. Our thoughts had been positive.

What happened?

Very simply, instead of focusing on OUR thoughts, we allowed our minds to focus on our perceptions of our prospects' thoughts. We decided to do their thinking for them. Logically, we have no reason to believe that anyone we are contacting for the first time will treat us poorly. There is absolutely no foundation for us to think that a new prospect will be rude to us. But we've heard of it happening. Maybe it has happened to us before, perhaps even more than a few times. With each negative response we decide that the next response will be just the same. We pre-judge our prospects, never giving them a chance, never considering that the next one may be "the big one" that vaults our business to the heights of success.

Mark it down. "The heavy phone syndrome" will attack you, and here's the strangest part; it will most likely attack you when you are about to call your friends to do business with you. It's not as prominent when dealing with strangers. You can get off the phone with a stranger and you'll never see him or her again. End of story. Wash your hands of that person. Move on. But when it's a friend or even a family member, you figure that if you don't get it right you might harm a relationship. That misperception of another person's thoughts intensifies and stops you AND your business cold.

Let me ask you something. Do you really believe in your business? Are you confident that you have the best product or service in the world? Would you buy from yourself? If you answered yes to these questions, then go with those thoughts before you pick up the phone. It may take some effort, especially as you do receive some negative responses and the phone seems to fatten up with every punch of a number on the keypad. Just remember that no business has ever grown without customers. Others have been overcome this obstacle on their way to success. You can too.