Necessary Risk (Source: Geo Davis)
The issue of risk is absolutely central to being a creative person… I’m a very big believer in starting small and getting feedback from the world and course correcting there. (Source: Michael Ellsberg, The Necessity of Creative Risk Taking | Big Think)
If risk-taking is fundamental to creativity as I’ve repeatedly insisted, then how do we assess what risks are worth taking, how do we to scale risk, and how to mitigate risk.
Obviously we can’t 100% idiot proof risk-taking, and the most cautious among our cohort may suggest that we steer clear of risk altogether. But I’d venture a guess that our totally risk-averse family, friends, and colleagues rarely if ever achieve significant creative success. And I’d suggest that prudent risk-taking is not only possible but creatively productive as well.
If risk is prerequisite to creative achievement, and if necessary risk is not only a useful ingredient but potentially empowering force for creative people, then we need to look at how best to manage it. Michael Ellsberg (@michaelellsberg) reminds us to stack the deck. Take risk, but don’t risk it all. Creativity is unlikely to flourish if you’re drowning in debt because you quit your job without adequate savings, without a minimum viable product, and without a reasonable plan for risking and failing and risking and failing… until you finally succeed.
Hedge. Maintain your security while you take small risks calculated to move your process forward without sinking you.
Put yourself out there on a blog. Create something… that you can put out into the world and see if you get any bites, see if you get any customers, see if you get any viewers or fans or audience and course correct, try new stuff. Throw lots of stuff against the wall and see what sticks and there are ways you can do that where you can get—the key is to get real world feedback from the world before you invest a lot of money into it. (Source: Michael Ellsberg, The Necessity of Creative Risk Taking | Big Think)
We hear a lot about crowdsourcing, but it’s not a new idea. A creator has always needed an audience. A writer has always needed readers. A musician has always needed listeners. An artist has always needed spectators and participants. An entrepreneur has always needed consumers.
Too often creative risk is pushed out further and further, driven by fear of failure. Risk aversion prevents creative people from evolving their creativity toward relevance, toward its full potential. Taking small risks, again and again, is incredibly useful for honing our crafts. Small failures help us adjust course without shipwrecking us. They help us course correct and navigate toward eventual success.
It’s worth emphasizing that the sort of risk, fail, risk, fail, risk, succeed process I’m advocating requires you to be honest with yourself about the type of risks that are worthwhile and the scope or scale of risk you can absorb without excessive damage. Carefully calculating your ideal risk scenario isn’t easy. Nor is it static. Circumstances and risk sensitive are in perpetual flux. Ongoing risk assessment and mitigation should be baked into your creative process from the get-go (and forever!)
Michael Ellsberg cuts to the core of the matter thus:
Have a nice, stable income and start with small projects that don’t risk your income, don’t risk you being out on the street, don’t risk you not knowing where your food is going to come from, but that allow you to interface with your potential customers or your potential audience and get feedback from them and see what they respond to and start—and snowball it out from there where you start small, you get a little bit more feedback, you course correct and it just can grow from there and then there will come a time when it actually may make sense to quit your day job and focus on your passion, but you want to keep the day job doing while you have your passion growing. (Source: Michael Ellsberg, The Necessity of Creative Risk Taking | Big Think)
Failing to heed this advice is a surefire way to hamstring your creativity. Risk too much, and anxiety will become your 24×7 companion. And needless to say, passion and anxiety make poor bedfellows. Stay stable, dive into the small risks, weather the small failures, course correct, grow you passion, and steadily approach your creative potential.
Embrace necessary risk. But be prudent. They’re not mutually exclusive!
[Note that this post may continue to evolve as I wrestle with how best to talk about positive, beneficial risk-taking. My creative risk forays (describing and/or advocating creative risk), including my book, 40×41: Midlife Crisis Postponed, remind me that I need to develop a more articulate and comprehensible message. I’ll get there. So far, I’m still risking and failing, risking and failing. But I will eventually organize my thoughts into language that will simplify the message and remove the confusion. Stay tuned…]