This week my daughter Jennie had a birthday.  Not only is she my only child and mother of my adorable grandchildren, she’s also one of the best and wisest teachers I’ve ever had.

I thought of something that Jennie did when she was in college as I was reading Isabel Losada’s A Beginner’s Guide to Changing the World.

Losada’s story begins this way: “Sometimes you just have to do something, don’t you?  Sometimes an injustice comes along and you think, ‘No, this cannot be,’ and— rather than just sigh, switch off the TV, or throw away the newspaper one more time—you know it’s time to act.”

Jennie’s story began when she was in college where her major enthusiasm was the work she was doing with Amnesty International. Along the way, she volunteered to organize and manage a benefit concert on their behalf.

A fair amount of uncertainty, risk and challenge were involved in this undertaking. Although the bands were playing for free, the space they were using charged $400. They needed 125 paying attendees in order to break even.

Lots of phone calls followed as she lined up bands, found a venue and rallied workers.

One day when I was out of town, I got a panicky phone call. “Mom, I’ve got to know all your shoestring marketing tips!”

She caught me by surprise. “For your concert?” I asked. “Do you have any money at all?”

“Well, we’re going to have $180.” She paused and added, “Some of us are going to sell our blood.” (You may have been that creative when you were 19, too!)

We discussed how they could best spend the money and talked about sending out press releases. Another long distance call was spent writing the press release followed by directions on sending them to appropriate media people.

We both held our breath.

The night before I returned from my trip, I received an excited call. One of the entertainment papers in Minneapolis had written, “This gig is deserving…The show’s a chance to be socially conscious and musically correct, even without Sting and Springsteen. Amnesty International is the hardest working and most effective crusader.”

I relaxed a bit.

The night of the concert, I got another breathless call. The concert was a hit and Jennie was the caretaker of over $1000 in cash which she had to protect until she could bank it on Monday.

That wasn’t the only reward, however.

Thanks to taking on the challenge, Jennie’s self-confidence got a big boost. In fact, she immediately decided to take on another daunting project.

“You can’t test courage cautiously,” warned Annie Dillard.

As Jennie—and Isabel Losada—discovered, courage begins when you are willing to take action on behalf of those things you believe can make a difference in our frequently difficult world.

Remember, you can have your dreams or you can have your fears. You can’t have both.

 

 

2 Responses to “A Little Story About a Big Risk”

  1. Sue West

    My two favorite statements here — I plan to add these to my newest vision board, which I’m assembling. “Remember, you can have your dreams or you can have your fears. You can’t have both.” – I love this because it puts the choice back on us. Through coaching, I recently decided I need to put my “fear” and “futzing around” into a cage. They can stay there, but they don’t get to run around my life anywhere they like.

    Also liked this comment because it speaks to feeling the fear but moving ahead anyway. Sometimes you DO have to ignore and not analyze something – just go! “You can’t test courage cautiously,” warned Annie Dillard.

  2. Jody

    “You can have your dreams or you can have your fears. You can’t have both.”

    One of the best taglines ever!

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