Next to the fear of failure, equally crippling, is the fear of being wrong. Most people, I believe, want to do good with their initiatives. They want to make the world a better place, in one way or another.
Superhero wall
On Friday I read this blog post about Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail, which I enjoyed. It was one of the books that opened my eyes to the evolution of the web, especially the social web, as we know it. The post is about a report that says Chris Anderson was wrong – a whole report to disprove a theory that marked a change of perspective in how we view the way people interact with products on the web.
Admittedly, my perspective is slightly skewed because I’ve read Chris Anderson and did not go into the report in detail. Whether the report is right or wrong, someone else will debate that, it just got me thinking that the risk of being wrong cripples people to inaction.
When someone is wrong, or has failed, society vilifies them and discourages others who have that sparkle in their eye. We point fingers and shoot at the stake, those individuals who worked towards slightly tilting our perceptions about the world. The young man or woman who dared to go out on their own to build an organisation that didn’t work is butt of all jokes. She hides away because we snigger about the fact that she tried and didn’t make it. We defend the status quo and break her – and others like her – down.
Society needs more people with near daunting dreams, with a different perspective of the world, the ones who will change society. The next time you meet someone who dares to dream up a new world, support their cause if you can. Lend a hand and help them along.
It’s the ones who dare to be wrong that change world. The ones who are always right almost rarely ever change the world. They remain comfortable critics in their high places. The ones who DO make the world a better place and face the most resistance.
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Wrong turn picture by sonson on Flickr
Superhero wall picture by marymactavish on Flickr
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