fearless work in an insecurity grounded world

Well. There is a lot of talk in the business world about how creativity has been squashed by data, numbers and an unhealthy pursuit of efficiency. All is true. However, to rediscover creativity I believe its helpful to think about how fearless you have to be to actually BE creative. Creativity is a tricky thing. Originality is an objective but less important than not copying. Inherent in almost every creative idea are elements of something that already exists or has been done.

I say all that because, having been involved in the creativity business in some form for over 20 years, I recognize that the best of the creative best are part insecure and part fearless. And it’s the fearless part that I am going to write about because I saw this quote somewhere.

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“I seek fearless work that challenges me”

Martha Graham

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This is good stuff.

This is the kind of stuff not for the faint of heart.

And, frankly, this is the kind of stuff for few people, but, I can pretty much guarantee its at the essence of every great creative mind. Why? Because this quote is indicative of someone whose heart lies in doing fearless work.

Oh.

Fearless work means being fearless of failure.

Fearless work does NOT mean doing something wacky just for wacky sake.

Oh. But that is the first thing people who condone fearless work bring up.

You hear words like “stupid” or “what were they thinking” or “I could have told them it wouldn’t work <or be popular or be liked>.” In my mind those are words of people who fear work that looks fearless. This fear can be disguised as a variety of things … discomfort in something new … misunderstanding … lack of ability to recognize something.

Whatever.

This is about people who actually DO the fearless work. Because people who seek to do fearless work recognize several things:

–          how difficult it is (even though it may seem simple to the creators)

–          how unpopular it may be

–          when to stop being unpopular (the guard rails in fearless creativity)

In fact. I am going to use someone else who pursued fearless work to make the point. Kristen Hersh (one of the founding members of The Throwing Muses). As a teen (just to make another point that teens can often be wiser beyond their years) she said this about the difficulty of pursuing fearless work:

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“Do you know how hard it is to not know how to sound like other bands? There aren’t any lessons to teach you how to do this and no one can help us figure out what <to play>. It’s hard to learn something that no one can teach you.”

Kristen Hersh

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Actually. I wish I could share this with anyone who is critical of any original idea so they could think about the fact someone is doing something that was self taught because there is realistically no one to teach someone what has not been done before. Sometimes fearless work is difficult, and defined, by the fact you are forging your own path.  There are certainly some principles you can stand upon and some rigor of thought you can apply, but, there are no lessons,  there are no rules &  there are no real guardrails. In fact. The real difficulty is knowing when to put up your own guard rails.  Knowing when to stop innovating and just be creative with fearless work.

Kristen, as a 19 year old teen, pursued fearless work and did some amazing stuff (along with her fellow teen and musical genius in her own right – Tonya Donnelly).

Anyway.  I think the fearless ones tend to hear and see things the rest of us don’t. In simplistic terms it is only popular in their own heads. And unfortunately for the fearless there is only a minority who truly understands what they are doing:

(Kristen Hersh) … “but we play unpopular music.”

(producer) …

“that’s exactly what you play because you’re inventing something. You’re gonna be hugely influential.”

I do believe the best of the fearless best recognize that what they do may be initially unpopular to the majority. It is an uncomfortable position to be in because ideas are fragile and affirmation often makes it less fragile (people too).

The fearless just forge ahead. They may not like it. They may not embrace it.  But they understand it. And fight their way through it.

Because it is a fact. All the truly influential fearless creators didn’t have it easy early on.  They were creating something – inventing something. In their fearless work they were paving the way for people to think differently, see differently and just experience something different.  Yeah, I know, that is what being influential is all about.  But that doesn’t make it any easier. Now. While fearless work is often unpopular initially there is a difference between bad unpopular and influential unpopular. Good fearless is about understanding how to put up the right guardrails. Oh. Yeah. Those guard rails.

So how do the fearless know when to stop innovating?

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“when you start to suck, stop”

Kristen Hersh

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Sounds simple, but it is not. I believe the best of the fearless best have an internal quality control.  Conversely, in the mind’s of the ‘less mature’ innovative thinking maybe the guard rails are less defined. But. In the best of the fearless best they have that inner barometer to recognize what sucks and what doesn’t suck.

Oh. And before we start putting too much weight on ‘less mature’ and associating it with age I would like to remind you that Kristen said this last quote when she was 19 (oh, these smart teens as I like to remind those wise stodgy adults).

Like I just said.

The best of the fearless best have an inner barometer.  They are born with it. They are born with the guardrails.

But this doesn’t mean there isn’t fear.

Even the fearless creative people have fear.

Everyone has fear (lest we forget).

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“We fear the idea of something more than the thing itself.”

Steve Chandler

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Fearless work means loving the idea of something more than fearing the thing itself. I imagine that thought encapsulates most good things in life. But in this case those who pursue fearless work have overcome their fear in pursuit of what is good fearless work.

Anyway.

Today’s business world needs more people to pursue fearless work. To fearlessly create beautiful ideas that may make some people feel uncomfortable. We need these fearless people because they have a ripple effect beyond their own work. They influence how the rest of us look at ALL things. I do worry a little bit because I know these people exist but I am not sure a business world exists for them to exist in. We say we want more creativity, more risk, more fearlessness and, yet, the business word does not reward creativity, risk or fearlessness. I do worry a little bit because those who DO create fearless work live in an insecure world and if the business world does nothing to offer a security safety net being fearless can become an almost insurmountable daunting challenge.

My personal thought?

If you are fearless, all you can do is …

Act.

Do.

Create.

Discover your fear, face it and seek your own version of fearless work. In the end maybe we are lucky enough to positively influence people. And, at its best, maybe we actually be influential. And, of course, maybe something fearless we do will create the change necessary for the next fearless work to be done.