"Who dares wins" is the motto of the British Special Air Service—SAS—Her Majesty's elite military unit. This call to action is not just applicable to special operations warriors; it succinctly articulates the key difference between those of extraordinary achievement and the masses who navigate life with nary a ripple. In my experience, this willingness to put it on the line is a much greater indicator of success than the more conventional qualities of intelligence, dedication, and attention to detail.
Perhaps the ratio is correct—the workforce can only sustain a small number of trailblazing entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders. After all, the majority of the rewards and accolades accrue to them. I submit that you might want to consider joining that first group and create an environment that fosters risk-taking and innovation from those you lead. The rewards for successfully making the leap are nothing short of extraordinary.
Unfortunately, there is no reward without risk. This is a fundamental principle of economics and a key factor that maintains market equilibrium. It is also applicable to individuals when it comes to their own careers. Staying below the radar, avoiding conflict, and operating inside the box is a great way to keep your job in perpetuity—and probably the surest way to remain right in the middle of the pack for life.
Spearheading new ways of doing business, challenging the conventional wisdom, or starting something altogether new can be enormously rewarding both in terms of career growth and pecuniary results. Unfortunately, it also increases the likelihood that you'll fail, threaten those around you and, heaven-forbid, commit a career-limiting action.
As I said, there is no reward without risk and, in the aggregate, the odds favor you-the house. Look around at the most successful people you know. They are all risk-takers. Fortunately, it's in our DNA as Americans. From our venerable Founding Fathers to Donald Trump, America rewards those who risk their pride, lives, and livelihood for the possibility of much more.
As leaders, we should also encourage a culture of appropriate risk taking. The test for any great organization is: do the rewards for innovation materially eclipse the penalty for failure? If not, there is a very big problem. As we all know, the military generally fails this fundamental test. We often hear of the zero-defect policy in effect in the Navy and, despite the best efforts of many O-10s and E-9s, it is generally true. One blemish on your record and your chances for promotion are greatly reduced. Ironically, we work in an inherently dangerous environment flying planes, driving ships, leading warriors—yet, we tend to drive to ultimate accountability with severe career consequences for even small mistakes. This naturally leads to the unintended, but not surprising, consequence of persistent and pervasive risk adversity in the bureaucracy of the military. To be fair, almost all large organizations inadvertently support risk adversion.
Rebel! You can make a difference. In your commands, expect some amount of failure from those who take smart risks and drive innovation. In some of the best companies, half of new products fail—in the music and book publishing industry, for example, a majority of titles fail to recoup their investment, profit is made on the small number of best-sellers and chart-toppers. An old adage notes that, "One who makes no mistakes never makes anything." The military is certainly not the entertainment industry, and the consequence of failure is likely to be much higher. Matching risks and rewards, however, does apply to both equally well. Unnecessary risks that put people's lives at stake should not be tolerated, but aggressiveness and innovation in battle must be nurtured and rewarded. In the safer world of public affairs, for example, we should not be afraid to tell the Navy story because of the possibility that something negative might appear in the article. It will. The leadership has to resist the temptation to zero-in on the negative and disregard the positive. One too many zingers to the Public Affairs Officer, and the organization will revert to a reactive, damage-control mode-the bastion of risk-adversity.
As Woody Alien said and the Harvard Business School teaches, "70% of success in life is showing up." It is true. Hundreds of thousands of people have brilliant ideas for new businesses, inventions, and books but never do anything about them—they take their brilliance to the grave. In fact, it's often the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders who never fully analyzed the thousands of risks inherent in their plansthey just went out there and did it. Ask Fred Smith, Grace Hopper, Sergey Brin, and the countless other successful leaders whom many called crazy for trying.
Believe in yourself and dare to challenge the status quo. "Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."-Apple Computer
Mr. Michel is president of Military.com, a company focused on connecting service members, veterans, and their families to the benefits earned while in the service. He is a former naval officer.