by Jean Case
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CONTENTS
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Epigraph
Foreword by Jane Goodall
Introduction: Finding Fearless
My Story: Leaving Normal Behind
PART ONE: MAKE A BIG BET
Chapter 1: Start right where you are
Chapter 2: Be audacious
Chapter 3: Burst through assumptions
Chapter 4: Peek around corners
Chapter 5: Now go, make your Big Bet
PART TWO: BE BOLD, TAKE RISKS
Chapter 6: Get uncomfortable
Chapter 7: Embrace risk as R&D
Chapter 8: Pick up where others left off
Chapter 9: Risk or regret
Chapter 10: Now go, find the “courage zone”
PART THREE: MAKE FAILURE MATTER
Chapter 11: Crash and learn
Chapter 12: Fail in the footsteps of giants
Chapter 13: Beat the odds
Chapter 14: Take the long view
Chapter 15: Now go, learn from failure
PART FOUR: REACH BEYOND YOUR BUBBLE
Chapter 16: Eliminate blind spots
Chapter 17: Build unlikely partnerships
Chapter 18: Be better together
Chapter 19: Leverage partnerships for growth
Chapter 20: Now go, get outside your bubble . . . every day
PART FIVE: LET URGENCY CONQUER FEAR
Chapter 21: Seize the moment
Chapter 22: Be a first responder
Chapter 23: Don’t overthink or overanalyze. Do.
Chapter 24: Now go, be the one
Epilogue: On Returning to Normal
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Notes
Index
To each person who has heard that voice whisper,
“This is your moment”—
and is choosing to heed the call.
And to all of those who have inspired and supported my own fearless journey.
If you added up all the times you failed,
all the times you came up short,
would you try again?
What if failure wasn’t a limitation?
What if taking risks was your status quo?
What kind of world would you imagine?
When the challenges we face seem overwhelming,
we need to experiment with new thinking and try new things,
create unlikely partnerships
and set audacious goals.
To build a better world,
to make a real difference,
we have to take bigger risks,
make bigger bets.
And if we fail and fail again,
we have to get right back up and dream even bigger.
To live in a world worth living in,
we have to let challenge inspire us.
We have to take risks, be bold, and fail forward.
We have to Be Fearless.
FOREWORD
BY JANE GOODALL
One of the most important messages that I share with people as I travel around the world is that each one of us has some role to play, each one of us makes some impact on the environment, on our community, every day. And we can choose what sort of difference we want to make.
As you read National Geographic Society Chairman Jean Case’s Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose, you’ll see this is one of the key messages to her readers. This message resonates throughout her call for each of us to be fearless—or rather that we must, when necessary, overcome our fear to do what we know is right.
I know the importance of these messages, as the call to Be Fearless has been at the center of my entire life. I was fortunate. By the time I was ten years old, I knew I wanted to go to Africa to live with wild animals and write books about them. Fortunately, I had a wonderful and supportive mother. When everyone else told me to dream about something I could actually achieve—after all, we had very little money, World War II was raging, Africa seemed very far away, and I was a mere girl—my mother simply told me I would have to work very hard, take advantage of all opportunities—and never give up. I wish she was alive now so she could know how many people have said to me, “Thank you, Jane. You taught me that because you could do it, I can do it too.”
Well, it is well-known that I did get to Africa and that I had the amazing opportunity to live and learn from the animals most like us, the chimpanzees. No one had done this before. People often ask me, “Weren’t you afraid when you were out there alone in the forest?” Of course I was sometimes. We are meant to be, as fear gets the adrenaline flowing through our veins and gives us the courage to do what seems impossible. I was afraid when I heard the strange growling, roaring call of a leopard at night when I was sleeping alone under the stars to be close to the chimps when they woke in the morning. I told myself it would be okay—and pulled the blanket over my head! I was afraid when two bull buffalo charged out of the undergrowth—it was the surge of adrenaline that enabled me to climb a seemingly unclimbable tree. (It took more courage to, eventually, climb down, not knowing if they were still hiding, waiting for me. Luckily, they were not!) I was afraid when a group of chimps, having lost their fear of me, treated me like a predator, screaming, shaking branches, and charging. I acted as though I had no interest in them, dug a little hole in the ground, pretended to eat leaves—and eventually they went away!
Finally, all the chimps got used to me, so I could move right up to them. I soon recognized them as individuals, gave them names, got to know their very different personalities. And I learned that their communication gestures—kissing, embracing, patting one another, begging with outstretched hand, and so on—were almost the same as ours and used in the same context. I watched them use grass stems to fish for termites. I noted that their emotions, too, were similar to (or maybe the same as) ours in terms of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, depression, and grief.
It was a magical time in my life.
Then, after I had been with the chimps just over a year, I had to go to Cambridge University to work for a PhD in animal behavior—even though I had never been to college. There I had to Be Fearless and overcome a very different kind of fear: imagine how I felt when professors, of whom I was in awe, told me I had done everything wrong. I should not have given the chimpanzees names—numbers would have been more scientific. I should not talk about their personalities, minds, or emotions—those were qualities unique to humans. Fortunately, as I had not been to college, no one had told me this! Moreover, I had a wonderful childhood teacher—my dog, Rusty! You cannot share your life in a meaningful way with any animal and not know that we are not the only beings with minds, personalities, and, above all, emotions. My mother always told me that if I believed I was right, I must have the courage of my convictions. So it was Rusty and my mother who helped me overcome my fear and stand up to those professors.
Today Mother Nature needs our help. Chimpanzees, who have taught us so much, are in desperate trouble—along with so many other wonderful animals and plants—as their forests are disappearing. It is the same with woodlands, wetlands, savannas, and virtually all habitats. We are losing biodiversity. We are polluting land, rivers, and oceans. Human populations and our planet are plagued by numerous chal
lenges, with a great need to find sustainable solutions for the future.
And that is why this book is so timely. There is no point in history when it has been more important to Be Fearless, overcome our acceptance of the status quo, and for each of us to step up and take action to make a difference in our world.
We must work to empower everyone to take action to improve bad situations, right perceived wrongs. And Be Fearless brings together the tools and stories that can inspire and empower everyone to take exactly that kind of action.
I see the value of this message every day through the work of Roots & Shoots, the Jane Goodall Institute’s environmental and humanitarian movement for young people around the world, from kindergarten through higher education, that I started in 1991. Today there are more than 100,000 active Roots & Shoots groups in seventy countries, comprised of young people working to improve things for people, animals, and the environment. The most important message of Roots & Shoots is that every single individual makes a difference every day. And in some cases this means overcoming fear. We must not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in, to make the right choices. And when millions and millions of people make ethical choices, this will, cumulatively, move us toward a better world.
So now, as you read Jean Case’s book, Be Fearless, I hope that if you are not already engaged in some activity, you will hear the call to action and know that you, too, can change the world. The stories Jean has brought together in this book to bring the Be Fearless principles to life prove that everyone can make a difference. It does not have to be earth-shattering. Try volunteering to help organizations that are working in areas that you feel are important—like clearing trash, visiting old people abandoned by their families, or working in animal shelters for homeless dogs or cats. Get active in campaigns to protect an environment under threat from development, or from fracking. Try to learn more about what is going on—around you, or in the wider world. Sooner or later, you will discover the issue that truly rouses your passion, makes you sad, indignant, angry. And then, roll up your sleeves, take action, and BE FEARLESS.
Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute, and United Nations Messenger of Peace
www.janegoodall.org
INTRODUCTION
FINDING FEARLESS
This book is a call to action for those who seek to live extraordinary lives. Maybe that’s you.
If you think that only a rare genius, an exceptionally privileged individual, or a massively funded organization can launch a breakthrough product or bring a world-changing movement to life, I’ll introduce you in these pages to the fearless people from all walks of life who have made the unimaginable possible. You might be dazzled by their achievements, and it’s easy to assume they possessed extraordinary abilities or advantages that set them apart from ordinary strivers. But I have news for you. Their single common trait was this: they were all passionate about making the world better. They seized an opportunity and kept at it in spite of daunting barriers, frequent failures, and loud objections—and they succeeded. Today we look at them, our most iconic creators, and wonder how the world ever existed without their contributions. But, as you will see here, many of their stories provide inspiration and helpful hints on how we can all make a greater impact in every aspect of our lives, and serve as beacons of fearlessness for others.
Today’s global challenges—poverty, civil unrest, political stalemates, economic divisions, climate change—play out daily against the backdrop of our living rooms. But if these problems seem too big and complex—easier to ignore than to even attempt to solve—know that there has never been a better time to engage. An explosion of technological innovation is transforming the way we live. And if we’re going to keep up with the rapid pace of change, we need to rethink the old ways of doing things.
My husband, Steve, and I started the Case Foundation in 1997 with a fearless mission: to invest in people and ideas that can change the world. This means we’re always investigating and experimenting to find the best ideas out there, the best leaders, the best models for innovation. A few years ago, we engaged a team of experts to determine the “secret sauce” that propelled those rare leaders, organizations, and movements to success. They discovered five principles that are consistently present when transformational breakthroughs take place. To spark this sort of change, you must:
1. Make a Big Bet. So many people and organizations are naturally cautious. They look at what seemed to work in the past and try to do more of it, leading to only incremental advances. Every truly history-making transformation has occurred when people have decided to go for revolutionary change.
2. Be bold, take risks. Have the guts to try new, unproven things and the rigor to continue experimenting. Risk taking is not a blind leap off a cliff but a lengthy process of trial and error. And it doesn’t end with the launch of a product or the start of a movement. You need to be willing to risk the next big idea, even if it means upsetting your own status quo.
3. Make failure matter. Great achievers view failure as a necessary part of advancing toward success. No one seeks it out, but if you’re trying new things, the outcome is by definition uncertain. When failure happens, great innovators make the setback matter, applying the lessons learned and sharing them with others.
4. Reach beyond your bubble. Our society is in thrall to the myth of the lone genius. But innovation happens at intersections. Often the most original solutions come from engaging with people with diverse experiences to forge new and unexpected partnerships.
5. Let urgency conquer fear. Don’t overthink and overanalyze. It’s natural to want to study a problem from all angles, but getting caught up in questions like “What if we’re wrong?” and “What if there is a better way?” can leave you paralyzed with fear. Allow the compelling need to act to outweigh all doubts and setbacks.
These five principles can be summarized in two words: Be Fearless. Taken together, they form a road map for effective change-making for people from all walks of life, but it’s important to note that they aren’t “rules.” They don’t always work in tandem or sequentially, and none is more important than another. Think of them as a set of markers that can help identify when decisions are being made fearlessly.
We knew we were onto something when we shared these principles with friends and colleagues and started hearing from people in the private, public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors who wanted to incorporate the principles into their own work.
Whenever I speak about being fearless, audiences are excited by how tangible the principles are. As someone said to me, “These are things I can do!” People often come up afterward and tell me their own stories of fearlessness, which light up my imagination and fill me with awe: a fourteen-year-old girl who created a nonprofit to cleanly dispose of prescription pills and drugs; a man who started a bakery to employ “unemployable” men and women just released from prison; a Cuban immigrant who created a formula for affordable assisted living; a Liberian activist who designed a program to help remote communities access medical clinics; a young farmer who invented a no-till process that will save one of earth’s most precious resources; a celebrity chef from Washington, DC, who figured out how to serve millions of meals to hurricane victims in dire straits.
These people dreamed big, but most of them started with small, familiar steps. Reading their stories is like following a trail of bread crumbs: They made phone calls. They knocked on doors. They wrote their visions in big letters. They talked and talked and walked and walked. They found supportive communities. They didn’t take no for an answer. They did things anyone can do.
Whether you’re working at a start-up, finding yourself at a personal crossroads, working as part of an established organization, or looking for inspiration to make a life-altering change, the Be Fearless principles can provide guidance on how to take that next step. And the moment to do so is now.
I am always inspired by people who challenge themselves and those
around them by asking the question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” Be Fearless tells the stories of innovators and activists, artists and entrepreneurs, scientists and explorers, and individuals from organizations and businesses who answered that question with actions that spoke louder than words. Some of these individuals are household names; others you might never have heard of. As you read about them, I hope you’ll imagine yourself standing in their company.
MY STORY
LEAVING NORMAL BEHIND
My personal journey to becoming fearless began in the most normal way—literally. I grew up in the small town of Normal, Illinois, smack-dab in the middle of the American heartland. Normal in the 1960s was the home of Illinois State University, State Farm Insurance, and the first Steak ’n Shake restaurant in the country, whose tagline—“In sight, it must be right”—was an ode to the virtue of transparency. Customers marveled to see delicious burgers prepared right before their eyes.
Like a lot of towns in the Midwest, Normal had a mix of blue-collar workers, small-business owners, educators, business executives, and people who struggled to make it from paycheck to paycheck. The houses on the lane where my family lived belonged to professors from Illinois State University, the owner of the town’s A&W drive-in franchise, factory workers, and long-haul truckers like my dad.
Normal was the kind of place where everyone knew your name. My backyard was a cornfield, and I would race through the narrow rows that separated the stalks, exploring the surrounding fields and streams. I was sometimes mistaken for a boy with my cropped hair and sweatshirts—and when I wasn’t roaming, I could be found playing pickup sports with the boys in the neighborhood. When I’d take a turn as quarterback, my older brothers would be on the front line, taking on anyone trying to get to me. (Although they’d later tell me, “If you want a boy to like you, you should let him win when you go one-on-one with him in basketball.”)
