I was surprised by how few Oscars Avatar won yesterday. I really thought it deserved more than it received….though it was certainly up against some stiff competition – I’d never even heard of “The Hurt Locker” – plan to see it this weekend…maybe on Saturday….
But I came across this video today of James Cameron, the director of Avatar – and thought he makes some excellent points about risk and failure. He talks about how important it is to have curiosity, imagination and creativity, and how his love of exploration and awe of the ocean helped bring his sci-fi ideas into focus. He also talks about his willingness to take on adventure, exploring and discovering new worlds on our own planet, and creating new technologies that can seem magical at times, and about leadership.
But most importantly, his main point is about risk. I’ve talked about risk before – because I believe that in much of what we do, our biggest fear is that of taking a risk which will result in failure. And failure for most of us means loss. It could be loss of revenue, loss of someone we care about, loss of what we know…but in any case, it means loss of something that’s important to us. So if the risk is greater than we can bear, we don’t take it.
So our assumption is that when we avoid risk, we avoid failure. But what if, by not taking the risk in the first place, our failure could be even greater?
I believe the Social Web has brought us to a critical juncture across the business enterprise and in how we communicate with each other. Engagement, openness and communication have become the new vocabulary in how we deal with our customers, our vendors, our employees, our business relationships, our colleagues – and this involves a change in how we’ve traditionally thought about ourselves. It requires honesty, and transparency and authenticity – and not everyone is willing to take that risk of being real and exposing our vulnerabilities.
But the greater risk here is of doing nothing at all. If we’re not willing to take on the risk of failure, there will be no change – and without change, we will stand still in a world of opportunity that’s passing us by.
Avatar was a huge risk, a massive undertaking, more than 10 years in the making created with digital technology that comes breathtakingly close to magic. It’s up to you to decide how much risk you can bear, but this I’m absolutely certain of – risk and reward go hand-in-hand.
“Failure is an option, but Fear is not…” – James Cameron. And here’s the video:
Heard about Twitter’s major new re-design? Doug Bowman, Creative Director at Twitter, posted a sneak peek at Twitter’s new interface – very cool! Though the teaser doesn’t show much, it does looks like more stats on the profiles, including the number of days you’ve been on Twitter, when you joined, the average number of tweets a day you post, and the percentage of recent @replies.
