Suspended Over a Safety Net
I recently wrote an article about courage, How Courage Improves your Woodwork, and on the post in LinkedIn Cynthia Klustner left me a comment with this quote.
“Have courage and the pursue the unknown end.” Oliver Wendell Holmes.
First off, thank you Cynthia for the comment and quote. What stuck out in that simple 10 word sentence is the end, the unknown end. It made me want to dissect courage further and explore how people have the courage to pursue the unknown.
In my previous post, I discussed what courage is, the action of overcoming your fears. I discussed why that is important for your growth. But I didn’t talk about where courage comes from.
By nature, I am afraid of the unknown. When I don’t know what lies ahead I avoid it until I have a clearer picture. I have never quit a job without having a new one lined up. I do my research before starting a new project. I map out my route to a new destination. Heck, I even check the menu at a new restaurant before deciding to go to it. There’s security in knowing what to expect. It doesn’t mean I won’t take a chance. Often I’ll order the special at a restaurant, but I like to know what type of food they serve to be sure that I will enjoy the meal.
That is where the safety net comes in. I once read a trapeze artist’s response to the question, how do you have the courage to jump off the ledge? She said, the net provides the courage. If a single mistake meant her life, she’d never leave the platform. But knowing a net was ready and waiting provided the confidence to swing from the trapeze.
Is that being courageous? Knowing if you slip up you will be saved? Is that overcoming a fear? Is that heading into the unknown if you know the outcome?
I think so.
Take another example. A big name, but it could be applied to many people in his situation. Elon Musk. Elon has started 8 companies to date with big names like Tesla and SpaceX. But let’s look at his first company, Zip2. Zip2 was founded in 1995 by Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri and funded by Elon and Kimbal’s father, Errol Musk for the sum of $28,000. Musk took a risk. He started a company not knowing how it would go, but he knew his father was their to support him and if the venture ended in failure I’m sure he’d have another shot at success. Having that safety net enabled him to grow the company and eventually sell it in 1999 for $307 million, an incredible return on a $28k investment.
That’s what a safety net can do for you. If presented the opportunity to start a business with $28k, the price of a car, would you? Could you throw everything aside, work tirelessly for at least a year generating little to no income under the anticipation of future success?
I couldn’t.
I don’t have the safety net Elon had. That future is too uncertain for me to venture into it. Instead, I do what many do in today’s world. I work a full time job, my safety net, and work on my side hustle, this blog, YouTube, and my woodworking business, knowing I have future security, buying me time to build my business slowly and safely.
To me, that’s the same thing Elon did. He could do it faster, spend more energy on it, and return himself his own safety net to start 7 more companies in the future. But we have the safety net in common. Without his father as a safety net I’d venture to guess we wouldn’t see Tesla’s on the road today.
How do you find a safety net? After all, we don’t all have a wealthy father who can finance our dreams. There are two ways I find my safety nets.
Create them for yourself
Create them for others
Create Your Own Safety Net
Creating a safety net isn’t as hard as it seems. Find a fear you want to overcome, an area you want to be courageous. Once identified, start researching. Your research will give you knowledge and confidence to start. That knowledge is the safety net, knowing that you are equipped to overcome the situation. This works great for small things like changing out your garbage disposal or building a stool. These are simple tasks you can do with few tools and little knowledge, plus the stakes are low so the safety net doesn’t need to be strong.
A safety net I am currently creating is financial security to eventually go full time in my own business. I’m doing that by saving and investing in my retirement so I know I am financially secure to retire and won’t sacrifice my highest retirement contribution years with the greatest time value of money. Instead I’m sacrificing now to maximize these years for my future benefit. That safety net will eventually pay off in dividends.
Create Safety Nets for Others
Creating safety nets for others may sound odd, but I have had safety nets created for me and every day I work to provide that same service to others. This can be simple, a safe space to talk about ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Encouragement to keep moving forward and advice on how to improve.
At work I provide this to my employees as a safe place to experiment, explore ideas, try new things without the fear that failure will be repromanded. In fact, I shield my team from outside pressures to allow them to innovate. If people feel they cannot challenge the status quo, they never will, but that challenge is how we improve. Failures should be celebrated as steps toward innovation, efficiency, and greater success than seen today.
You can only cross the tightrope when you are confident. The safety net gives you that confidence to try, practice, and succeed. So go find your safety net and be courageous.
