Taking Risks
There used to be an advertising slogan 'No one ever got fired for buying IBM'. The meaning behind this was that IBM was the safe option. So when an IT manager needed a new IT system he could rely on IBM. Not necessarily because IBM would perform the installation on time and on budget, but because even if they went wildly over time and over budget the manager could go to his superiors and say something to the effect that 'If IBM couldn't do it then no one else would have been able to do it either'. If this same manager went to a local company, who may have quoted to be able to do the work for half the price, and they failed the manager would be in the firing line. 'Why', he would be asked, 'did you get some small local company to do the work instead of a reputable company like IBM'?
Buying IBM was the safe option. Today, you could substitute Microsoft for IBM. I've mentioned before ('Art and Emotion') that media executives are wooden in their attitudes; they won't take any risks and are more interested in following established trends then trying anything new. Unfortunately, music executives are not alone in this attitude, as this IBM slogan illustrates. Companies, and particularly large organisations, are moribund by the inability of executives to take any form of risk. The result of this is that, contrary to popular view, science and technology are not really developing in new ways. In computers people accept the Microsoft method of doing things. In the Arts people accept the formula-driven drivel that comes out of Hollywood. In science anyone who questions established scientific orthodoxy is ostracised as a heretic.
People are worried about what other people think. It's sometimes said that this is a result of economic instability. If there is a shortage of work then people are unwilling to take a risk that may prejudice their employment. However, when IBM was at its peek in the 1980's, employment, particularly in IT, was plentiful. The problem is not employment; it is that people have less integrity and less self-belief.
Self-belief has been related to confidence but there is a subtle difference. Self-belief is being in touch with the inner voice that guides you and following it, even against popular opinion. The hallmark of really successful people is that they believe in what they are doing. What they are doing may be misguided, but it is this belief that carries them forward. This isn't to justify stubbornness. You can have a strong self-belief and still be flexible.
Good examples of people with this characteristic are Winston Churchill, Bob Dylan (in his earlier years anyway), Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
