There is nothing we prize more than boldness, yet these days, nothing seems in shorter supply. But boldness is not like a precious gemstone that takes a billion years of pressure and energy to create. Nor is it like oil that must be drawn from deep underground. Boldness is not a finite resource only available to an elite few. No, boldness is something much simpler. It is renewable. It is in each of us. Every day. Everywhere we go. It’s something that we are capable of at a moment’s notice in matters big and small, physical and moral. There are daily opportunities to put it to use.
And yet it remains so rare...Because we are afraid. Because it’s easier not to get involved. Because we have something else we’re working on. Because now is not a good time. We’d rather stick to our comfort zone and keep doing what feels safe. The logic is understandable – it’s easier NOT to be bold. But if everyone took the easy way out, what’s left?
The greatest moments in human history all share one thing. Whether it’s starting a business, running an ultramarathon, or going to school when you’ve been threatened not to – the thing they have in common is the boldness of ordinary people. People who did what needed to be done. People who decided to take responsibility. People who said: “If not me, then who? If not now, when?”
The next time you see an easy path, take the hard route instead. It’s going to require you to be bold – if it were easy, boldness wouldn’t be required. The next time you choose to take ownership and assert agency over your own fate instead of waiting for someone else to come and save you, the following components of boldness will come in handy.
Boldness component #1: Prepare
“Training” is not reserved for athletes and soldiers; it is available to all. Preparation is the key to overcoming fear in any situation. If something new comes unexpectedly around the corner and we’re unprepared, of course we’ll struggle to overcome it. But the things we anticipate and prepare for become easy to confront. As Epictetus said, whenever we face adversity, our goal should be to say: “This is what I’ve trained for.”
We’re talking about practice. With practice, we go through the actions in our minds. We build the muscle memory of what we do in situations like these. We practise scales, so our fingers are ready to tackle that epic new piece. Good luck playing Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu on piano or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on the violin without some serious finger dexterity built over years (or decades) of practice. Get comfortable with discomfort. Get someone to ask you tough questions deliberately. Get familiar with anything they could possibly throw at you. Work out with a weight vest on, play the guitar blindfolded, and kick a footy with your opposite foot. Do it a thousand times (then a thousand more) when there is no pressure so that when the real test comes, you’ll know exactly what you need to do.
Knowledge helps. Understanding what needs to be done might be the first step. But it is rigorous preparation that makes you bold when it’s time to shine.
Boldness component #2: Decide
Often, deciding is the most important part of a job, yet it’s the thing we’re most afraid to do. Making a decision means choosing one thing and rejecting another. We’d much rather try to keep both doors open as long as possible. But sooner or later, if we don’t choose, the choice will be made for us...and it probably won’t be the one we want.
Anne Mulcahy stepped into Xerox as the new Chief Executive Officer in 2001. She’d inherited a company in more than a little bit of trouble. They’d just come off the back of a $273 million loss the year before, the debt-to-equity ratio cracked 900%, and Moody’s rated its bonds as “junk.” Plus, the share price had dropped 92% in two years, wiping out $38 billion of shareholder value. And, to cap it all off, the government had just launched an investigation into its accounts. With $19 billion in debt and only $100 million in cash, Mulcahy described the situation as “terrifying” (probably an understatement). She decided that the job of a CEO was to be a decider, someone who made the hard calls no one else was bold enough to make. So, she started making decisions.
Mulcahy didn’t take a weekend off for two years. She shut down a number of businesses, including the inkjet printer unit that she’d championed earlier in her career. She cut $2.5 billion out of Xerox’s cost structure. Of course, none of these decisions were easy, but they were necessary to give the company a fighting chance, a flicker of hope to stave off utter catastrophe. In the two years before Mulcahy stepped in, 2000 and 2001, the company’s losses totalled $367 million. By 2006, Xerox posted profits in excess of $1 billion and sported a much stronger balance sheet. In 2008, Anne Mulcahy was named “Chief Executive of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, having guided the company through a seven-year rebuild to reclaim its dominance.
Being the decider is hard work. The doctor in the operating room cannot delay: they must make decisions quickly, they must act and have the courage to face the life-and-death results of the performance. The same goes for the firefighter, the trader, the performer, and the leader – nothing is gained from being timid. Boldness is required around every corner.
We lie to ourselves and say we need more time or more data or more research, or more debate and deliberation to make the right decision. But really, we’re just finding ways to delay. We don’t want to have to own the consequences. Some famous person said: “Whatever you’re not changing, you’re choosing.” By not quitting that job, by not leaving that relationship, by not making that investment, by not standing up for what we believe in – we’re choosing the alternate path.
Even though you tell yourself you’re just taking more time to decide, really – you’ve already decided. You’ve decided to keep things exactly the way they are. Not choosing is, in fact, still a choice. And a poor one at that. It’s much better to be intentional, boldly standing behind one option over the other rather than passively receiving whatever is already coming our way. The best time to have tackled a hard problem and made a bold decision was a long time ago. The second best time is now.
Boldness component #3: Act
In France, they have a term: petites actions. It’s all about taking those first few small steps, making that first little bit of progress and using that initial inching forward to help build momentum into substantial action. Like how the wiggle of a pinky finger can get you up off the couch or how writing a single sentence can lead to a whole chapter. Whenever we feel afraid in the face of some enormous problem, it helps to break it into petites actions and start doing little things that will eventually add up. Often the best place to start isn’t some death-defying stunt, but rather the small and simple first crack in the armour.
We might think that small steps won’t lead to anything important, but there is power in consistent positive progress. On the path to our grand vision, we make one small change, the thing that is right in front of us...then we can figure out what to do next. Eliminate one problem, send one email, or write one paragraph. Get that first spark that may eventually lead to a roaring fire. Your headlights shine on just a few metres of a dark road in front of you, but those few metres of light are enough to get you safely all the way home. Once you make that first inch of progress, the next small step becomes obvious. It’s easy to be paralysed by fear, but it takes boldness to take some kind of action – any action that gets you closer to your vision, no matter how small. There’s no way around it; if you want to make progress, you must take action.
Excerpted with permission from Attitude: The Shit They Never Taught You, Adam Ashton and Adam Jones, Penguin India.
