The audacity to serve. No choice involved. – SCN Encourager 5/27/2014

Just leave it to me.

Not only am I routinely “a day late and a dollar short” – obviously, I also have the knack for asking a question that was definitively answered weeks earlier.

Such was the case yesterday where I challenged us to ramp up our level of audaciousness.

I’ve discovered this won’t be easy for me.

I can barely spell audaciousness, let alone try to live it.

So, when I asked you to look in the mirror and be more audacious in promoting the cause of education, I never realized that the issue has already been decided.

Apparently we have no choice.

We’re either audacious or we fade away.

Sorry about that.

My original intent for yesterday’s Encourager was to plop a reasonable “consideration” onto your plate for you to (perhaps) just chew on a bit, nothing more.

I never thought that audaciousness would be like spooning brussel sprouts onto your plate back in the day when you were a kid, where you had to eat them before you could leave the table or have dessert.

We’re either audacious or we fade away.

In the May issue of INC magazine, the topic of audaciousness is featured over the course of 12 pages.

Its editors contend that if you want to be successful in what you do, some measure of audaciousness must be an integral part of who you are.

Your personal audaciousness should force you outside your comfort zone, to work alongside your fears, be sincere as opposed to fake (rats!), and request shaken, not stirred like a suave 007.

Your audaciousness is your very own… to nurture as you wish.

Bre Pettis is the cofounder and CEO of Makerbot Industries (the firm leading the way in disrupting our traditional economy via creating 3D printers).

Pettis said, “Innovation and the absurd are a paper-thin distance apart. You’ve got to explore the absurd with playfulness and simplicity. Be audacious in making things that are accessible, friendly, and simple. It’s not about making them more powerful.”

Bert Jacobs is the CEO of Life is Good. His clothing company has raised millions of dollars for children’s charities.

Jacobs said, “Audacity is when there are 999 other people who are looking to reduce their negative impact, but then there’s that one person out of 1,000 who actually wants to solve the issue completely. He or she will begin by asking, ‘what if?‘”

Jason Fried is the CEO of Basecamp, a software company in Chicago.

Fried said, “People who are audacious are willing to be misunderstood. They typically have to stand up to the world.”

Uh, oh.

I don’t know that I’m all that willing to be misunderstood – but I frequently am, anyway!

I can only hope this is the same thing.

It’d be nice to know that my “journey toward average” will make a pit stop at audacious somewhere down the line.

Tom Page, SCN               Audaciously requesting you to join us on Facebook.