Black Collegian News & Views

Success means different things to different people. It is something to which we all aspire. Or is it?

Do some of us intentionally ruin opportunities to reach our goals? Do we find ways to fall just short of obtaining short-term or even long-term goals?

Believe it or not, some people may just do so. Such actions may actually be a part of a fear of success.

Fear of success can take on many forms. According to the authors of Coping.org, fear of success can be a “lack of belief in your own ability to sustain your progress” or “fear that you will find no happiness in your accomplishments.” It can also be caused by several other factors.

“I think the fear of success is when you have insecurities about who you are and what you feel you are capable of doing,” says Shirley Labbe, the assistant director of the Counseling Center at Xavier University of Louisiana. “Instead of challenging your fears, you give in to them.”

Several Xavier students shared their thought on the fear of success also. Detroit, Mich., native Robin Dillard says that she thinks fear of success is the fear that one will not succeed. “I think it’s the fear of becoming too big,” says the junior political science major. “It’s the fear of not being able to handle the responsibility of success.”

Junior English major Zakiya Farris has a similar thought. “I think it’s fear of reaching a point or doing something that you feel you can’t handle,” she stated.

“I think it’s being afraid of taking risks and going to the next level in a business sense,” says Marvelous Miles, a junior mass communication major. “As a result you don’t put forth enough effort.”

Senior English major Raquel Franklin thinks that fear of success is being afraid to disappoint people or being afraid of losing their success. “Usually people who are successful are afraid they can’t maintain it,” she said.

All of these are very valid analyses. However, fear of success has additional implications when applied to African-American college students. The subject becomes even more complicated for African-American females.

“I think it affects [African Americans] in a way of not being sure of who they are and why they’re doing what they’re doing,” says Labbe. “They may settle for things that they feel are acceptable, putting their dreams on hold of fulfilling their goals because of that fear of trying and making mistakes.”

“If they make a mistake, they feel that they’re not good enough, but normally when you make a mistake, it tends to make you want to do better.”

Labbe also has seen the ways fear of success particularly affects African-American female college students. “I’ve noticed that academically intelligent African-American females tend not to want to be smarter because it looks like a put down in front of a guy,” she says. “We mask who we are because we want our men to outshine us.”

Miles looks at the effects of fear of success from a societal context. “It keeps us at entry-level jobs,” she says. “We become content with making a certain amount of money rather than tapping to the next level.”

She feels that African-American women are more susceptible to fear of success because men make more money and dominate the workforce.

“African-American women may be reluctant to go in male-dominated fields and acquire certain status levels,” she says. Farris, on the other hand, does not think fear of success affects African-American female college students more than African-American males. “I don’t think it’s true, especially when you see all the African-American women in school, which is considered a success,” she says. “Perhaps it is [something to it] because African-American women have two strikes against them.”

“You feel pressured, especially here at Xavier,” says Franklin. “I’ve heard people say, ‘If I make good grades this semester…’

Grades overshadow learning. ‘Just give me a good grade.’”

Franklin also places African-American women’s fear of success within a societal context. “It’s probably because if you look at the corporate world, men dominate in high positions,” she says. “Black women work extra, extra hard to even get there.”

Dillard says, “Women already have a double strike against them. Their view of success is already shaded.”

Labbe thinks that environment is one of the leading contributing factors to the fear of success. “Some people are submissive,” she says. “Some people believe that they should be assertive. Some people feel that if they are assertive that means that they are aggressive.” She also explains that there is a tendency to look at African-American assertiveness or aggressiveness as being crude or rude and to no see the real person.

The students have other ideas. “Maybe no self assurance in oneself and not believing in oneself will lead to fears,” says Dillard.

Franklin feels it mostly boils down to peer pressure.

All the women agreed that competition plays a role in fear of success. “African-American women will have to compete with white men then white women then black men,” says Dillard. “They’re afraid they will not be successful.”

“I know one girl who had older siblings who went to college, and they all did well,” Franklin recalls. “She was expected to do well also. So there is family pressure. There’s also societal pressure saying if you don’t have a degree, you won’t be anything.”

“If you feel like you can’t compete with someone, you’ll feel more like a failure,” says Farris. “You’re fearful of incompetence.”

Labbe also feels competition contributes to fear of success. “I find that we don’t trust each other,” she said. “I think because we have a lot of insecurity about who we are, we have the tendency to shut each other out.

“We don’t understand how to share. I have this little philosophy that I’m trying to develop that we just want a hand up. We don’t want a hand out.”

Labbe advises students to be the best they can. “As long as it’s what you want, you should do it. You have to be positive.

Even if there are setbacks, you must continue.”