"Remember, Orville Wright flew an airplane without a pilot's license."

 Retired U.S. Marine Corps General and former Secretary of Defense, James Mattis reportedly onced told his troops, "Remember, Orville Wright flew an airplane without a pilot's license."  I am not aware of the context in which he said this, so I can't say exactly what he meant.  However, if you interpret General Mattis to mean that breaking rules and regulations is okay or that doing something that you aren't necessarily trained to do is perfectly acceptable, you would be wrong.  Just read his superb book, Call Sign Chaos or spend 5 minutes with any Marine and you will quickly learn that this wasn't his meaning at all.  What I believe General Mattis meant is that it is okay to stretch your boundaries and capabilities.  In other words, innovation and progress ultimately necessitate taking a few risks.  And we shouldn't be afraid to fail when we do take those risks.

The motivational speaker and author, Denis Waitley said it perhaps best when he said, "Life is inherently risky.  There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing."  The artist Pablo Picasso said, "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."  Finally, former First Lady and politician, Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Do one thing every day that scares you."

All of these quotes are great - and they all have one thing in common.  We have to be able to dare to learn.  And we can only innovate and discover if we do learn.  It's really a simple point to make, even if it is difficult to practice in real life.  

There's a great story from Robert Iger's latest book, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company (it is awesome, by the way) about a meeting that Iger had with Pixar CEO Steve Jobs.  The famous Disney Animation Studio was no longer making blockbuster hit animated movies - in many ways, they had stopped taking risks and were no longer seen as an innovative studio.  In contrast, Pixar Studios seemed to have the magic touch, releasing hit after hit after hit.  Disney wanted to buy Pixar, and Iger was meeting with Jobs in order to negotiate the purchase.  Jobs was intrigued by the idea, but he wasn't exactly enamored with it either.

Iger met with Jobs at Pixar's corporate headquarters.  They met in the boardroom, and Jobs had started the meeting off by listing the pros and cons of Disney purchasing Pixar (how many times have you made a similar list when making an important decision?).  Iger writes, "Two hours later, the pros were meager and the cons were abundant, even if a few of them, in my estimation, were quite petty."

Iger told Jobs, "Well, it was a nice idea.  But I don't see how we do this."

Jobs replied, "A few solid pros are more powerful than dozens of cons."  In other words, don't be afraid to take a risk on something if there are strong reasons to do so - even if, as in this case, the cons appear on the surface to outnumber the pros!

We should not be afraid to sail in uncharted waters.  As the American author, John A. Shedd said, "A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."  That's not what we are for either - leave the harbor!  Don't be afraid to take risks.  Don't be afraid of failing - don't be afraid of learning.