Embracing the unknown is critical to innovation, resilience and realizing our true potential

Humans have four basic emotions – happiness, sadness, anger and fear. Each has a unique place in our lives and shapes much of our response to situations. The unknown is probably a being that evokes all four emotions and spurs us to action. But it is the fear of what we project onto the unknown that often paralyzes us into inaction. Action is built into our psyche. We must necessarily move, although we do not know the result of our efforts.

Instead of focusing on the happiness we will get from success, we let this uncertainty confuse us. We procrastinate for fear of failure and refuse to take the next step.

This is an all too familiar phenomenon that we face every day in our lives. As we begin to climb the professional ladder, many of us follow proven formulas handed down to us by predecessors. We hesitate to make decisions that go against established norms, even if such decisions can lead to significant profits, within the framework of certain acceptable risks. All our efforts are guided by the one decision out of 10 that didn’t click. We’re not looking at the nine that did. We forget that as children we had no fears when we began to explore the universe around us.

We fell trying to get to our feet, but were encouraged, or even forced, to keep trying until we mastered the art of walking; or for that matter everything. We also forget that we weren’t afraid to take a job after college, even if we knew nothing about the work we had to do. We learned from our mistakes. The worst thing was that we failed the first time, and the best thing was that we succeeded in the end. Ah! The joy of success! We forget that humans evolved because of an inherent desire to explore the unknown, without caring about failure or success. New worlds were found and new inventions and scientific discoveries were made.

All because a few dared to venture into the unknown. We deny ourselves the endless new opportunities that each new day brings. It is not that we do not have this spirit. It’s just that generations of conditioning have made it dormant, until we’re in a back-to-the-wall situation. Nowhere is that more proven than in jugaad, the flexible approach to solving a problem innovatively when one has limited resources. In our personal lives we are told to pursue our dreams but are often guided towards the more proven and safer options.

We don’t even try to think of the endless possibilities and the heights that society can reach if everyone is encouraged not to fear the unknown of failure, but to think of success and is free to follow their heart!

This is the contradiction that most of us from the previous generation, especially from the middle class, face when teaching the young. Fortunately for our race, today’s youth are better prepared for the unknown with access to much better sources of information that were also created by a few who dared to dream.

We should teach the young to step out into the rain without an umbrella and get soaked.

Let the sky be the roof. They should not regret that they could have lived a better life if they had not feared the unknown. Esmeralda Santiago sums it up so well. “How can you know what you’re capable of if you don’t embrace the unknown?”

(The writer is an author, speaker, coach, referee, and strategy consultant. He conducts creative writing workshops for young adults and business leaders. Opinions expressed are personal)