Categories: Articles

Finding Courage

Are you courageous?

It seems like a simple question to answer. It isn’t. Daylight changes our answer. In daylight, we’ll tell people to "just do it" and to be "fearless." The athletic apparel and shoe business will toss a ton of motivational aphorisms at you to get your butt up off of the couch and into a pair of their shoes. When we sit in boardrooms, we use a tonnage of military terms to talk about what we’re going to do to our competition. We walk tall. We wear crisp clothes and drive fancy cars in the hopes that people will see us, respect us and follow our every business whim. Late at night, in the dark, well… that’s another story. That’s when we’re naked, honest, full of self-doubt, anxiety, stress, concern and uncertainty.

What’s with the dual personality?

I’ve been around people we would all consider courageous, but it isn’t an "always on" attribute. I once confided in a speaking coach that I probably get more nervous than most people who are paid to speak. They turned to me and said, "if you aren’t nervous, you would be dead from the shoulders up."

What are you going to do about it?

To overcome my own fears and anxieties, I read. I write (blog posts, articles, books, etc…). I listen to other people speak. I learn. Personally, my ability to move forward (to ascend) happens when I do things to distract my mind from when it’s not feeling all that confident and primed by pumping it full of new thinking and business motivation. One of my go-to sources is (and always has been), Seth Godin (you can read more about that right here: Dear Seth Godin). Well, Seth is back with another book that feels like the perfect kick in the butt and cranium – at the same time. It’s called, The Icarus Deception. The book started out as a Kickstarter initiative (you can read more about that right here: The Most Exciting Thing Happening In Digital Right Now) and it’s almost ready for the mass public. In moving toward the publishing date (December 31st, 2012), Seth just launched a preview/manifesto about the topic titled, We Are All Artists Now (to download the PDF, just click on the green cover in the top left corner). As with all things "Seth Godin" take the thirty minutes out of your busy weekend to read it. Oh, and did I mention that it was free?

If you were not looking forward to going back to work on Monday, We Are All Artists Now may change your mind.

#thanksseth

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.