When I was a young student in late-1980s London, I met the really well-known and respected heavyweight art director, Mark Reddy.
Mark was already a legend by then, Head of Art at DDB London, one of the best ad agencies in the country. He’s the guy who did the famous Harvey Nichols campaign, among other things.
So being the curious young creative apprentice that I was, I asked Mark what his secret was, what had made him so successful.
“Fear,” he said, rather matter-of-factly.
“Just fear?” I said.
“Just fear,” he said.
He didn’t seem to have much to say, after that…
I was confused. Being a young advertising kid in a very large, dog-eat-dog urban metropolis and about to graduate, being scared shitless was my default mode, my natural state of being.
I thought the whole point of being a rockstar legend like Mark, the whole point of those long years slaving away, was that you didn’t have to be scared shitless any more. But here was Sir Reddy, respected and revered, totally talented and successful, twenty years older than me… and still scared shitless, apparently.
This idea that the fear, the “scared shitless” would never go away made me even more scared shitless, to be honest. And even if I wasn’t scared shitless, the idea that I’d have to live with it my entire career was a pretty bleak and depressing thought.
Of course, it wasn’t until years later that I realized that Mark didn’t have to be live with “The Fear” his entire life, it’s that he chose to live with it. Because it was the The Fear that actually made him good, that made him better, that pushed him ever-forward. And he wanted to be better, he wanted to be keep moving forward.
Fear is what keeps most people from innovating, yet fear is what made Mark Reddy world-class.
You see the paradox here, right? I tell my clients all the time that in order to be innovative, the first thing they need to remove is the fear. Yet here I am telling the story about Mark, who succeeded by kept fear close to his heart.
The lesson here is, I believe, is that this paradox will always be with us. It will never be transcended.
The Fear will always with the company wishing to innovate, especially big companies, who have lots to lose and myriads of personal agendas to navigate.
All you can hope for is that you or your team learns how to live with the paradox. This is what Franklin Roosevelt meant when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Of course, most businesses fail at this, most businesses seek safety first.
But that may also explain why most businesses fail eventually…
