Fear of failure.....maybe not
I'm reading Seth Godin's Tribes right now...great book. Last night I read his views on why people are afraid to take on leadership roles. He suggested that we are not afraid of failing, rather we are afraid of criticism. Huh. Interesting. I admit that I had to read this section over a couple of times and as it slowly filtered through the little grey cells, it hit me that Seth was right. Rightly or wrongly, I don't fear failing (partly because I assume that I will fail) but what I dread, fear, I worry about more than anything else is that someone will say "What were you thinking, that is the worst idea ever!".
As this realization sifted through, it got me thinking about the Wartime Houses project that I'm working on. (Some would say leading it, I like to not think about that.) Not once did my fear of criticism hold me back from not only pushing things forward, but from contacting total strangers and asking them to join the project. Heck, I even emailed some pretty impressive folks and didn't think twice about it. So what is different? Have I somehow overcome my fear? No. I'll ask Janice over and over about whether it's a good project or not. I think the different is that I believe in this project. I believe that it's important, that it's a part of our history that people should know about and that it can change not only how people think about heritage but the city. Grand idea? Absolutely, but if we didn't have grand ideas nothing would change. Now I'll post this and worry about it.