When You Don’t Do Anything You Don’t Make Any Noise

A case for being action-oriented in the face of doubting onlookers.

My grandmother was an extraordinary cook who expressed her love for her family by preparing delicious Italian meals. My grandfather was a dressmaker who worked six days a week. On Sundays, he sat in the living room reading The New York Times, while Grandma was in the kitchen putting pots and pans on the stovetop and thumping utensils on the cutting board while she boiled pasta, fried meatballs, and chopped garlic and basil.

One Sunday, Grandpa asked, “Why do you have to make so much noise in the kitchen?”

“When you don’t do anything, you don’t make any noise,” she replied.

My mother has told me this story approximately 357,000 times in my lifetime, but it wasn’t until I was a full-grown adult in the professional world that I understood. When you’re doing something–making something, making a decision, making a change, going out on a limb, taking a risk, trying a new approach–you’re inevitably gonna make some noise. You’re going to annoy and perplex people. You’re gonna get questioned, talked about, and doubted.

You’re going to have to be comfortable looking at that irritated, questioning onlooker whose world you just disturbed in the face and…