17 Challenges require risk taking
One of the major reasons that people shy away from challenges is because they fear failing. Risking failure is required if you want to overcome any challenge and turn it into a valuable improvement in your workplace. Failing is part of the landscape because not all of your initiatives will work and you can’t stop there or you won’t get to the ones that will work.
Watch this clip from Sir Ken Robinson.
Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity https://youtu.be/kSIkQwS-kcs
This is similar to the financial principle of leverage, which basically explains that your potential to generate revenues equals your potential to lose money. This is normally applied in business or personal finance to increase the potential of making gains by increasing debts, which increases risks. Smart business managers will manage risk at levels that they can both tolerate, (meaning they can sleep at night) while at the same time, maximize (or leverage) the money making potential of their initiatives.
Failing is a normal part of life and you need to learn how to manage it. Failing at anything can actually teach you valuable lessons that will help you reduce the potential of failing on the next attempt. (See Learn from failures) Successful people are typically successful because they didn’t give up and stop trying to be creative when they failed. I have heard from many successful entrepreneurs, and they are not ashamed to admit that they have had several failures in their businesses before the successful one took off.
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Watch this video presentation created by Travis Horvath, Matthew Morrison and Elizabeth Tesfaye about the challenges and benefits of taking risks.
Why Take Risk? https://youtu.be/tF3wP8Hf18Y
I have been quite comfortable with taking risks. I have had to be otherwise I would not be very creative or successful, and I have had my share of failures. When I teach my classes at the university, I find that I need to be very creative and have tried out many interesting approaches to teaching my classes. Some of these work and some don’t work. But as I keep striving to make improvements in my courses, I am finding that I am failing less with my innovations. I think this comes from what I am learning from the failures and getting better at innovating. But, I am still nervous when trying out something new for the first or even second time.
An example of the latest innovation in my Creativity in the Workplace course is this book that serves as an online textbook. This is the book that I have written as a textbook, and after many revisions, it is shaping up pretty well. Mind you, I have learned that if the book is free, then my students will appreciate my effort even if the quality is not up to what a traditional textbook publisher would be satisfied with. The risks that I am taking with this textbook include the time I am investing in writing it and the feedback I receive from my students.
On the flip side of this risk, this book can be a very valuable innovation, which is why I am willing to take the risk. This book will be available to the students at no cost to them, other than their time to read it. It will also be available to anyone else in the world that would find it useful. From the feedback, I will continue to refine this book so that it will genuinely help the student/reader to make significant changes in their lives as they strive to become more creative in their workplaces and help solve the challenges of our day and the future. This is something I am very passionate about, which drives me to take this risk and hope for a success.
What do you think of my book as an innovation? Is it a success?
Fear is a natural emotion that we all deal with. Watch this video about what we can learn from Fear.
How about you? What risks are you comfortable taking and at the same time accepting the costs of failing?
How do you manage your fears?
Watch this video about how this artist has overcome her fears to take many risks to promote her work.
How can you be more comfortable taking risks in your work?
Are you like Wally in this clip?
There are certainly many successful professionals in the world that can be very successful without taking risks. Perhaps you know people that fit this description. What makes them successful? Are they creative?
Watch this video presentation about four lessons about how to create in the face of challenge, self-doubt, and loss.
Watch these videos and then ask yourself why you are not more creative. Were you more creative when you were a child?
Creative and Bold Motivational Video https://youtu.be/Stc5aXdU_rI
This begs the questions:
Why take risks?
What is the value of being creative in your workplace?
What are you prepared to risk? Your job? Your reputation?
What is holding you back from being more creative?
Challenge:
Identify what you fear and is holding you back from being more creative. Then identify some things you can do to overcome those fears. Share these and your progress with a friend.
An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. — Edwin Land
Further Readings/Viewings
● How to Stay Positive: 11 Smart Habits by Henrick Edberg
