Page 95 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

Two Choices:

Act, or Don’t

Everyone thinks they’re ready to act boldly.
But precious few actually do it. Will you?

GET A BUNCH OF PEOPLE in adver- it safe. You know the difference
tising together, and they’ll com- between successful entrepre-
plain about the same thing: neurs and everyone else? They
Their clients are wimps. The cli- don’t just flatter themselves with
ents keep saying they want inno- talk of their bold hearts and
vative ideas—they want to do daring intentions. They make
something big and bold, some- hard, necessary, real decisions.
thing nobody else does. So the They produce things nobody has
ad folks dream up a ton of ambi- seen before. They push and they
tious stuff. The client reviews scrape and make holes in the
it and winces. Not what they’re wall. They act.
looking for, they say. And they I’ve always struggled to
steer the ad firm toward a cam- understand the disconnect.
paign that’s safe and timid and Why do so many people think
very, very familiar. of themselves as daring but
I’ve seen it myself, in my own fail to live up to their own self-
industry. At a magazine where conception? I suspect it has
I used to work, a boss kept tell- to do with fear. An idea is eas- life you’ll have at the end of risks—and I encourage you to
ing me he wanted the magazine ier than execution. It’s easier to that road. It’s a fine method, surround yourself with the same
to be funny. Frankly, this maga- imagine jumping out of a plane and maybe that works for peo- kind of people. They are living
zine was not funny. It had never than it is to actually stand there, ple. For me, however, I tend proof of positive outcomes, and
been funny. But, I agreed, this the ground a bazillion feet to think the opposite way. I we can and should set the same
was a good way to shake things below you, and take the leap. think about what happens if example for others. We all can
up. So I hired comedy writers. That moment—the moment I don’t take the risk. exemplify what it looks like to
I added jokes to stories. I made when it’s real, when it’s right I’ve regretted the moments not live with regret. We’ll still
it funny! Then he and my other there in front of you, when you when I backed away from a have problems, of course—and
superiors took all the jokes out either act or you don’t—is bold, exciting risk. Regret makes some will be of our own making.
and killed the stories by the when we really learn about our- you feel like you don’t belong (Not every bold move works out,
comedy writers. “Too off-brand,” selves. That’s when we see how somewhere; you’re here now, after all!) But let’s give every-
they explained. What they really we fare against fear. but you keep thinking, I should thing we have. We have an idea
wanted, it seemed, was the idea I’ll admit: I’m not perfect. be over there. And so, when of ourselves. We think of our-
of the magazine being funny. I’ve stared down the precipice it comes time for me to take selves as bold. All we have to do
But they didn’t want to sacri- and backed slowly away. But at another risk, I force myself to now is live up to it.
fice the comfort of familiarity— least a few times—when it really relive that regret. I imagine feel-
of doing things exactly as they’d counted, when it changed my ing it again, a regret plastered
always been done. life—I’ve taken the leap. I’ve to my body. I hate that feeling. I
People say they like to push heard people say that, in don’t want it ever again. So then
boundaries, but they rarely push moments like these, it helps to I give myself an option: Feel
those boundaries. They like the imagine the ultimate outcome. that awful regret, or be free of it. Jason Feifer GROOMER, CASEY GEREN
idea of change more than they Rather than get lost imagining Take a leap, and be free. jfeifer@entrepreneur.com
like change. They call them- the long road ahead, you think This is also why I love talking @heyfeifer

selves risk-takers but always play of the great job, or product, or to entrepreneurs who take big SUBSCRIBE: entm.ag/subscribe

14 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / November 2018 Photograph / NIGEL PARRY