Start Taking Risks to Achieve Success

Linda Yaccarino, the president of advertising sales at NBCUniversal, has incredible energy and enthusiasm. You can't help but want to follow her when you meet her. She is a leader with charisma. I met her last week and one of the things she said was so powerful, I wanted to share it with you.

She talked about the high cost of playing it safe--if we don't take chances we'll stay stuck. And that's more problematic than taking a risk and perhaps failing (if that should happen, we will learn something from it).  

On a personal note, Linda is one of three sisters. She's an identical twin and her father raised his "girls" as if they could do anything. All the daughters have achieved great heights in their careers. A dad's influence is very important on growing girls.

As you go about your day and you look at challenges you're facing, ask yourself, am I playing it safe? Or is there another option that I'm afraid to go after? What's the worst case scenario--you do it and it doesn't work out? What's the best case scenario-you achieve what you didn't think you were capable of achieving. 

Go for it!