Drawing on Courage: Risks Worth Taking and Stands Worth Making

by Ashish Goel, Stanford d.school, Ruby Elliot (Illustrator)

A practical, illustrated guide to overcoming the challenges of creative work, including where to start, how to give or get feedback, when to change direction, and how to stand up for what matters, from Stanford University’s world-renowned d.school.

“Ashish Goel’s magnificently beautiful book illuminates a powerful new way to think about, discover, and act with your own personal courage.”—Dan Roam, international bestselling author of The Back of the Napkin and Draw to Win

The everyday moments of creative work can be rife with fear and fraught with risk. Bringing ideas into reality takes courage! In Drawing on Courage , designer, entrepreneur, and d.school teaching fellow Ashish Goel examines what it takes to be courageous.

Using comics to illustrate real-world situations with humor and insight, Goel explains the four stages of every courage fear, values, action, and change. And he helps you develop the skills you need to master each stage (even if it scares you), from embracing fear and defining the values that drive you forward to taking action when you're unsure and adapting to the changes that result from your courage.

Each chapter features a series of tools designed to develop a mindset of Open the Tap to generate new ideas; develop A Risky Streak to take the all-important first step; or create an Origin Story to remember your purpose. Whether you're launching a side hustle or trying to convince your company to recycle, creativity takes pluck, nerve, and grit. This indispensable guide will help you develop all of those skills and more.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2022

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. This book breaks down courage into 3 parts: overcoming fear, finding your values/purpose and acting. There are lots of goofy cartoons illustrating the process and some great tips on overcoming fear, what to do if you fail or if it's unclear what the outcome it. And it also talk a lot about how everyday courage adds up to bigger impact over time. Good if you're struggling with a difficult conversation or relationship, trying to decide if you should stick with a project or risk presenting a big idea to a major client.

[Nabeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than your skill, your courage brings the real change. The courage to give honest feedbacks, accept shortcomings, to recognise human flaws and more. Can't recommend this enough to anyone works with people and manage teams.

[Amrithaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I listened to this on audible, and it didn't fully work for me, because a lot didn't stick. But there were many interesting takeaways, I will re-read visually for better recall and hopefully share some tidbits here when I do.

[Christopher Armani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well presented actionable steps to be more courageous each day. I love his focus on values, slaying fear, and integrity.

[Brooke Dilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these d.school books. Lots of creative sparks come from reading them.

[Tomas Nilsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like it! Worth reading again

[Brayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the drawings and comic-type pages were and unexpected enjoyable element, the book was too light, providing ambiguous advice and not enough examples.

[REEDÃÂ AÃÂ GEORGE · Rating 5 out of 5]

The comics alone are worth if

This is a fun book about an important and sometimes amorphous topic - courage. I enjoyed it as part of my d.school bookclub (look it up).

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun little read.

[Fadhila Alfi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many interesting takeaways, light yet meaningful. Plus cute illustration tho.

[Abigael Weller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawing on Courage by Ashish Goel is an introductory quick read for finding your voice. Goel provides some great tips on 1. building up courage to speak up and 2. how to create change where you are.

While the main body of text outlines the 4-step journey that is drawing on your courage, the colorful illustrations provide quirky visual guides to many of the main ideas. My favorite section was about the Invitation Model. I had not heard of this approach, but I definitely think I will apply this in real-life. It builds upon the idea of listening to understand rather than listening to respond.

Sometimes, it felt like that comics land right in the middle of an important paragraph or thought. Much of this is due to the comics being full-page. It would have been nice if they could be more integrated into the text so it felt more cohesive. The color scheme for the comics was well selected and the typography is easy to read and looks great.

This would be an excellent recommendation for recent graduates going into college or into the workplace as they enter into new environments where they will want to speak out.

This review is based on NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

*A review copy was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I started reading it in March, I didn’t know how much I needed it, until June when I started my internship. It was then that I spiralled into a constant loop of self-doubt and being my own cheerleader. I realised that my lack of courage was a big inhibitor.

I enjoyed how accessible this book was. It progressed in a way that gave sufficient context and build-up, included fitting real-life examples and contained valuable, actionable practices from professionals. The short comics were a treat and acts as a summary of the main point of the chapter. However, there were times when comics would fall in the middle of a sentence and since this was an e-copy, it was a little frustrating to navigate back and forth.

Every chapter ended with actionable activities to practice courage. While I wouldn’t say it’s revolutionary, it’s a well-structured, easy-to-understand read about how to identify fear, what values you can learn from the fear, how to take action and progress towards change. It’s great when you need a short read (145 pages) and reminders to be courageous. I think it’s a good starting point to learn more about yourself.

[Amrendra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is on creating and collaborating with courage. In a life full of risks big and small, what role does courage play. Using comics to illustrate real-world situations with humor and insight, Goel explains the four stages of courage - fear, values, action and change.

Designed as a Stanford d.school guidebook, this is a topical self-help book. The book claims to deal in 'Risks worth Taking and Stands worth Making'. The book elaborates on courage but it does not give that many examples and is not very clear. The author admits that courage could end up good or bad. What he recommends is to stay optimistic and be in action. But that is too generic.