Staying safe

John Nicholson, a football writer, had a very good post on the (legendary?) manager of Arsenal football club, Arsene Wenger.

Arsene Wenger had a few good years at the start of his tenure at Arsenal when he was seen as the “innovator” with a different approach to management and football. Over time, however, the other managers caught on and Wenger lost that edge. He delivered 7 trophies in his first 500 games and exactly 0 in his next 500 and Arsenal have consistently been also-rans – almost there but not really. John Nicholson points to conservatism for that run. Arsenal have been afraid of taking that gamble and have thus stagnated.

While John Nicholson largely sees people as conservatives and risk-takers, I tend to thing we have both within us. Of course, we lean towards one side or the other for most decisions but we do have it in us to be both prevention-focused and promotion-focused. There are times when it is fully advisable to be prevention focused – if you are unsure about the safety of that bungee jump vendor, don’t do that bungee jump. Yet, for the most part, I think we’re better off being promotion focused. (Unless you are a lawyer and maybe, even then, you’re better off being cautious at work and throwing the caution to the wind at home).

I think it makes for a more interesting and maybe even a happier life. Yes, regular risk-takers see a fair bit of pain but they also see learning and wisdom. There’s almost nothing more dangerous than the status quo and nothing more debilitating than stagnation. It’s good to ask the questions, push our boundaries, look for new possibilities, try different things, fail, gain some perspective and then try again. The journey will have more failures than wins but wins feel much better when they are few and far between.

And, as John Nic says, “if you never fall in love you’ll never have your heart broken but what kind of life is it to live which pulls back on the big stuff for fear of both the heartache and the glory it can bring.”

There are few things as dangerous as staying safe.