I stumbled on this short film by Nic for www.monday9am.tv that shows an interview with one of my favorite authors Seth Godin. There’s a lot of talk in the video about curiosity, faith, getting stuck and why one of the smartest things done by the smartest people in the world was turn off their television. But what I really want to share is how he talked about attitudes towards risk. He says:
Curious is the key word… It has to do with a desire to understand, a desire to try, a desire to push whatever envelope you are interested in… [Curious people matter because they] are the ones who talk to the people who are in a stupor. They are the ones who talk to the masses in the middle who are stuck. The masses in the middle have brainwashed themselves to think that it’s safe to do nothing.
Seth Godin is a genius at creating strategies to market stuff. He wrote bestselling books such as Meatball Sundae, The Dip and All Marketers Are Liars. Imagine what would have happened if he was not curious enough to try out his ideas. But it wasn’t easy for him, too. He further explains:
It’s easy to underestimate how difficult it is for someone to be curious. For 7, 10, 15 years of school you are required not to be curious. Over and over the curious are punished….It’s more about a 5, 10, 15-year process when people start finding their voice and they start realizing that the safest thing they can do feels risky and the riskiest thing they can do is play it safe.
Repeat after me: “The safest thing we can do is feel risky and the riskiest thing we can do is play it safe.” How does that sound?
Last week, I observed several small entrepreneurs (just your run of the mill ones) and discovered that even for something as small as a fruit stall, they had to be curious and they had to learn not to play safe. Entrepreneurs cannot afford to get stuck in the middle, in a stupor and just let the world pass by because it feels safe to do nothing.
If you are one of the masses in the middle who are slowly starting to get out of that stupor, and realize that you want to be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to make a conscious effort to resist playing it safe, as Seth experienced. It will not just happen. It will require curiosity, will and a healthy dose of courage.
January 25th, 2008 at 10:00 am
this is a good article who wants to start it right, and wrong at the same time.
hey, mistakes are inevitable but they are part of a future success.
that is, if they will decide not to give up in the end.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I enjoyed reading your article and listening to it s the same time. It made a lot of sense to me especially in the Filipino
frame of mind doing business.
To compliment the article,I would like to
add that Filipinos in general are very protective in their hard earned pesos,dollors etc…they will invest in business as long as “safety first” is their first rule of the thumb.Forget about wreckless investments,no such thing, only accidental unforseen events “human miscalculation”,,,With a rows of late nite brainstorming with their partners, spouses,and close friends afew phone calls from close advisers and mentors, a couple of more tweaks coming from the unofficial pool of Sunday’s family godfathers lunch {trditional filipino Sunday trip to lolo and lolas}
A simplified or be it what,complicated version of marching orders would definitely be laid out on Monday morning for immediate implememtation”SAFETY”. And relating this to the article, come now the vicious cycle of breaking out of the condintioning the educational system has to tried and made sure no leaks re coming out
DrCramNoel@aol.com