The story of fear, trust, and innovation. This presentation documents a common problem: allowing fear of failure, or disspointing others, to prevent you from reaching the level of success you have the potential to reach.

1. RISK ADVERSE
The Story of Fear, Trust, and Innovation
By @thejordanrules

2. One particularly gloomy Monday morning, Jimmy awoke
to find a BAT sitting at the foot of his bed.

3. Being a child of 8, Jimmy was understandably scared…

4. … and began to cry.

5. Although his parents immediately came into the room, and
got rid of the bat, this incident was the SCARIEST event of
Jimmy's early life.

6. Jimmy grew. He grew and Grew, and GREW. He grew until
he was a man…

7. Ahh!
… and was exposed to more and MORE scary situations.

8. Ahh!
Burglars

9. Ahh!
Angry Parents

10. Ahh!
Heights

11. Ahh!
The Dark

12. Ahh!
… even vegetables

13. Eventually, Jimmy graduated college, and got a job at the
local widget factory.

14. But Jimmy still remembered all the things he was scared
of.

15. I
don’t
want
to
be
afraid!
Jimmy needed to figure out a way to STOP being scared of
everything.

16. JIMMY DECIDED TO FACE HIS FEARS

17. Ha!
Jimmy got a security system to protect himself from
burglars

18. I
Love
You!
We
Love
You!
Jimmy had a long conversation with his parents and
found they're not so scary

19. Ha!
Jimmy went base jumping and realized heights are
nothing to be afraid of

20. Zzzzzzzzz
Jimmy unplugged his nightlight and realized he can sleep
soundly in the dark

21. Ugh.
He even tried vegetables, and found he really didn't like
them but… They weren't scary.

22. I’m
pre?y
much
fearless
After quashing every fear he could think of, Jimmy
realized there was something else that scared him...

23. SOMETHING BIG… so BIG he was scared he couldn't face
it alone.

24. THE FEAR OF: DISSAPOINTING OTHERS

25. Work
Friends
Family
City
Customers
Jimmy belongs to several different communities

26. In each community, Jimmy has worked hard to earn
respect from his cohorts.

27. Jimmy realizes that everyday is lived in fear of
disappointing certain members of his community.

28. Why
does
everyone
have
to
approve?
The more he thinks about how engrained this fear is, he
starts to think about how its affected his life.

29. He's stopped taking risks in order to
stay safe.

30. Avoiding Dangerous Risks
Revenue
Time
and then progressed to avoiding unnecessary risks

31. Avoiding Unnecessary Risk
Avoiding Dangerous Risks
Revenue
Time
and then progressed to avoiding unnecessary risks

32. Always Playing It Safe
Avoiding Unnecessary Risk
Avoiding Dangerous Risks
Revenue
Time
Until Jimmy was always playing it safe

33. Risk
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Jimmy realized that while focusing on the risk …

34. Risk
Reward
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
He failed to consider the potential reward.

35. Jimmy began to understand that his
competition wasn’t having better
ideas…

36. … They were just calculating their risk
tolerance differently.

37. +
=
Risk
+
=
Risk
He realized that his aversion to risk has infected more
than just his business, but his personal life as well.

38. This realization initiated a cathartic
change in Jimmy.

39. Jimmy started to approach things differently. He started to
approach situations as though he didn't have anyone to
disappoint.

40. This allowed Jimmy to explore
possibilities the old Jimmy would
never have explored.

41. Family
He picked up Indian food for his family … They loved it.

42. Work
He suggested a 6-prong widget at work - He was
promoted.

43. Questions
Answers
Customers
He started answering customer inquiries though Twitter -
It was a huge success.

44. Friends
He held his first dinner party. - His friends had a blast.

45. City
He started a petition to reduce public transit fare, though
federal subsidies. - His city was thrilled.

46. Of all the fears
Jimmy faced…

47. …the fear of
disappointing people
might have been the
hardest to face…

48. …and the most
rewarding when
conquered.

49. Take a page from
Jimmy's book &…

50. don't let the fear of
disappointing people
prevent you from
achieving
unimaginable
success.

51. You can start today by:
• Consider all ideas, risky or not
• Experiment and test ideas
• Assume you don’t know everything
• Assume everyone has something they
can teach you
• Try something new every day
• Talk to someone you wouldn’t normally
talk to.

52. For more ideas…
Read my blog:
http://thejordanrules.posterous.com
Or Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/thejordanrules