My wife absolutely loves Planet Earth. We were watching a segment the other day that featured dolphins who managed to figure out how to hydroplane into water only a few inches deep, catching fish in the shallow water. Large fish had taken refuge from the dolphins in the shallow water, knowing that dolphins need deeper water to swim.
The really interesting thing was that the Planet Earth cameramen actually managed to capture footage of the dolphins figuring out how to hydroplane. There was footage of the dolphins learning how to pick up speed and zoom on top of the water. During a tense moment, it seemed that one of the ballsier dolphins had built up a bit too much speed and had actually hydroplaned onto shore. Just when it looked like the dolphin was going to be stranded, the narrator (David Attenborough) delivered the perfect latin proverb:
“But fortune favors the bold”.
Cue music! At that exact moment a lucky wave crashed in and freed the stranded dolphin. The rest of the footage showed the dolphins using their new talent to catch unsuspecting fish on the shore.
Does Fortune Favor You?
It’s easy to stick in our comfort zones. If you don’t risk anything, you can’t gain anything. The status quo doesn’t inspire. New, fresh ideas aren’t without some sort of risk or pain. It takes major cajones to actually finish an idea. (See my list of tools that have helped me.)
So here’s the question: What are you doing that’s different than everyone else?
How are you innovating? How are you taking a risk to catch the bigger lazy fish, reseting in the shallow water? Sure, there’s always the risk that you could get bottom out and stuck on the shore. But that’s where the big fish are. The risk is what keeps most everyone else away.
The interesting thing about the footage of the dolphins was that only eight out of the large pack were able to figure out how to hydroplane onto the shore. The rest just watched.
It’s stankin’ easy to come up with ideas. We all have ideas. We all even might have good ideas.
It takes something special to actually execute them. Ideas are hard. And they take risk to actually turn them into something tangible.
So if the risk looks too daunting, just remember:
