Put Yourself in Harm’s Way
I am naturally a pretty introverted person and admittedly timid. I would rather sit in the house all day and work or whatever else, just so long as it’s inside the house. But, being a designer has taught me to go out of my own comfort zone and put myself in harm’s way. Let me explain what I mean.
Putting yourself in harm’s way, is a concept I gathered while listening to the Design Better Podcast, in an episode featuring Stanford Professor and bestselling author of the books Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life, Bill Burnett. It’s basically the idea of creating opportunities for opportunity. By going out there, talking to people, being open, going out of your way to expose yourself to new ideas, new perspectives, new people.
Living with curiosity and living passionately. Opportunities come by keeping yourself open to more than just the task at hand. Keeping your peripheral vision open and your emotional intelligence tuned in to what is going on. “Opportunities,” he says, “come through conversations with other people.”
“If you want to make yourself lucky, act like lucky people do. The best options often come in the most unexpected places with the most unexpected people.”
~ Bill Burnett.
Interestingly, I read another book that speaks of a similar concept, called The Defining Decade. The author, Dr. Meg Jay, talks about a concept by a sociologist, Mark Granovetter, called the Strength of Weak Ties. The study is basically about the unique value of the people we do not know well; the weak ties. She contrasts the urban tribe (people who look like us and do things like us — our strong ties) to the weak ties by saying that in as much as our urban tribe helps us survive, they do not help us thrive. They hold us back. Weak ties, on the other hand, know things and people that we do not know. Have more access to information and opportunities that we do not have. They force us to grow and change and that is why we need them. Her argument is wonderful (and I’m vouching for this book, especially if you are in your twenties), and especially that she states that weak ties are the ones that make a difference in our lives.
Keep your urban tribe, by all means, but also be aware that the weak ties are of greatest benefit to our growth. By putting ourselves out there to meet new people (and find those weak ties), we are creating opportunities for opportunity. Put yourself in harm’s way by getting out of your comfort zone. You may not always get those opportunities and some weak ties will say no. But that’s okay too. Meg guarantees us that more than we think will say yes.
As you do that, keep in mind some advice from Meg: “Make yourself interesting. Make yourself relevant. Do your homework.” Get the new perspectives and interact with those people who see life differently from you. Put yourself in harm’s way.
That said, next week is Nairobi Design Week ! I’m looking forward to go ‘out there’, put myself in harm’s way and make connections and find the weak ties. What a great way for my introverted self to spend the weekend.
