Ideas, vulnerability, and safe spaces
When we think of how great new companies and services come to be, we usually think of the great idea that started them. Whether individually or collaboratively, a group of entrepreneurial people took that amazing idea, shared that story with others, and got the resources they needed to make that idea a reality. This is, of course, a simplistic version of what really happens, but it’s not inaccurate: there are many companies that got their start this way. But, I would argue, we place simultaneously too much and too little emphasis on the importance of that original idea.
In the new PBS documentary, Women’s List (directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders), Sara Blakely tells the story of her company, Spanx. “Spanx exists because I actually kept the idea a secret for one whole year,” Blakely describes. She goes on to say,
“The moment you have an idea, that is when they are very very vulnerable, but that’s also the moment when we want to turn to a friend, a coworker, a husband or a wife and say it. And out of loving concern, million-dollar ideas, and billion-dollar ideas get squashed.”
There are many “reasonable” objections to taking the risk to build something of your own. And we, as a culture, like to believe that there is something inherent, or inborn, in the people who decide to take that risk, come what may. I’m not saying that everyone should be, or needs to be, a business owner or an entrepreneur. But I do believe that the way we socialize our children is gendered, affected by social class and race, and the perfectionism required of women and people of color in order to demonstrate their worthiness is toxic to the part of our nature that is willing to face risk and failure.
To share that great idea is to invite criticism and well-meaning dissuasion — and this is true for those with a great deal of privilege. There is work to be done to create a safe space for someone to share an idea, or a plan, even without the cushion of inherited ‘daring-do’ to support them. And while we may talk a great deal about the virtues of vulnerability, we must also acknowledge that other acts of sharing are more vulnerable than others.
In the end, the great company was founded because there was an idea, and there was also follow-through. How many ideas have gone by the wayside, because there was a great idea, and great potential, but it was stymied by a chorus of “Are you sure…”?
