Chuck Reynolds

During the summer before I started college, my family and I took eight days to raft through the Grand Canyon. Our guide was a rough, seasoned river-man. Being the youngest person on the trip, I would frequently ask if I could jump into the river or off a small cliff, to which he always just smiled with a slight nod. Whenever it didn’t turn out the way I pictured in my head he would laugh and say, “If you’re going to be stupid, you’ve got to be tough.”

This memory came to mind multiple times throughout the talks at TEDxCMU, the theme of which was fearless. Jonathan Fields, an attorney turned lifestyle entrepreneur, opened up the day recounting his experience of signing a six-year lease of prime commercial space in New York City on 9/10/01. Of course, he was anything but fearless, but he went on to share some of the most valuable advice offered that day.

Everyone can picture the worst-case scenario of failure, but those rarely come true and are paralyzing(what’s paralyzing?). So instead of allowing the crazy downward spiral picture take over your mind, answer three questions with realistic scenarios: What if I fail (and recover)? What if I do nothing (remembering there is no sideways in life)? What if I succeed (and can’t meet the demand)? The answers to these questions force you to challenge the status quo — a common theme of speakers throughout the day.

Nathan Martin, the CEO of deepLocal, took to the stage in the afternoon. His path to TEDxCMU, like Fields, took him from one opportunity to the next, never knowing what was to come. A Bachelor and Master in Fine Arts, Martin spoke about how motivating his punk-rock band prepared him to found deepLocal.

Every employee acts as their own entrepreneur and is encouraged to come up with new ideas. The constraints Martin imposes on his team forces them to face their fear of failure — he has had to do this many times as only 2 of the 16 of the products deepLocal have produced have taken off. To enable this “fail-fast” mentality, deepLocal works on two week sprints: the team works on the core piece of the project for two weeks and makes a decision on where it should go — to the trash or to work on creating the next functionality? This time limit is only one piece of deepLocal’s attitude: everyone should “think like an amateur, not an expert.” Blinding focus is bad — amateurs don’t know what they don’t know. Living in a technical world is also bad, and just because the technology means it can work one way doesn’t mean you have to use technology. In other words, Martin believes that every problem should be solved with the least amount of technology.

I had an opportunity to speak with both Martin and Fields during the breaks at the conference. What struck me about both of them was how similar their paths were. While Fields was an attorney and Martin was an artist, they both understand and appreciate that they didn’t know what they wanted to do. Each opportunity is just another learning phase and is part of moving forward in life. In fact, Fields’ comments (paraphrased) really struck home: It’s good to not know what you want, but it’s not good to know you want a change and do nothing. Use every step as an opportunity to learn, not doing so is just letting your fears control you.