Safe Is Not Safe

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When I look back at my career, one of the worst periods of my life as a writer happened to coincide with one of my most successful periods in business.
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I didn't realize it at the time, but I was censoring myself. I was so worried about protecting what we'd built that I stopped taking some of the creative risks that got us there in the first place.
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A conversation about Steven Spielberg and a documentary about Saturday Night Live got me thinking about this again. And I'm wondering how many of us are doing the exact same thing right now.
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Any questions or comments? Just shoot me a note.
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JP
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Is Self-Censoring Killing Your Creativity?

The other day, my brother and I were talking about Steven Spielberg's latest movie, Disclosure Day.

Our conversation centered on how Spielberg seems to keep returning to many of the same themes and storytelling techniques that made him successful over the past 50 years. Don't get me wrong, Spielberg is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. But we wondered whether he's still willing to take the kinds of creative risks he took earlier in his career.

Maybe we're being unfair to Spielberg (I man, come on, right? Jaws, Close Encounters, ET, Raiders…, Saving Private Ryan and the list goes on.). But the conversation got me thinking about something that hits a little closer to home.

What happens when you've already accomplished most of your goals? When you've achieved success, built a reputation, and have a whole lot more to lose than you did when you started?

Does success actually make us less willing to take the risks that made us successful in the first place?

Fatigue Is Your Friend

Around the same time, I watched Lorne, the documentary about Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels.

One section fascinated me. The writers at SNL work incredibly long hours, often writing through the night with a deadline staring them in the face. Michaels talks about how fatigue can actually help the creative process.

My takeaway was that Michaels wants his writers to get to the point where they're so exhausted and pressed for time that they start making decisions they would never normally make. They take bigger swings. They propose ridiculous ideas. They stop worrying so much about whether something is going to work.

Of course, many of those ideas fail. But that's also how you get something extraordinary.

I'm certainly not advocating that we all stop sleeping. But I think Michaels has figured out something important. Sometimes we need to create situations that force us to take risks we would otherwise avoid.

When I Stopped Taking Risks

I experienced this firsthand at Content Marketing Institute.

In 2014 and 2015, CMI was growing like crazy. Our events were expanding, our audience was growing, and we were building significant relationships with some of the world's largest brands. Many of those brands were becoming important sponsors.

It was an incredible time for the business. Looking back, though, I think it was one of the worst periods of my career as a writer.

I started censoring myself.

Before writing an article, I'd think about whether a particular opinion might upset one of our sponsors. Would it create a problem? Could it damage a relationship we'd spent years building? Was the article worth the potential fallout?

These weren't just hypothetical situations. We had actual conversations about what we should and shouldn't publish.

And because I was leading CMI, my concerns influenced the rest of our content team. I wasn't pushing them to take the chances I should have been pushing them to take.

Here's the thing. We were still creating really good content. We were reaching people and growing the business. By almost every measurement, our content program was succeeding. But I knew we could be better.

I wasn't writing bad content. I was writing safe content. And there's a big difference.

The more successful we became, the more concerned I was about protecting that success. Without realizing it, I'd become one of the biggest obstacles to our own creativity.

The Success Trap

I wonder how many of us are doing the same thing right now.

Early in our careers, taking risks is almost a necessity. We need to get noticed. We have to stand out. We have to do things differently because nobody knows who we are.

Then we start achieving our goals. We develop systems that work. We become respected in our industries. We build careers and businesses that provide a comfortable living.

And slowly, the risks start disappearing.

We stop proposing the unusual idea. We hold back the controversial opinion. We keep creating the same types of things because we know they'll work.

The worst part? Nobody has to tell us to play it safe anymore. We do that ourselves.

Finding the Edge Again

So how do we get back to taking creative risks?

I think we have to manufacture situations where playing it safe isn't always the easiest option. Maybe that means setting a ridiculous deadline, as SNL does. Maybe it's developing an idea without getting approval from everyone in the organization. Maybe it's writing something that challenges what your audience believes.

Or maybe it simply means recognizing when we're censoring ourselves and asking why.

I'm not suggesting we ignore our responsibilities or intentionally damage important relationships. There's a difference between being courageous and being reckless.

But I do think the best creative work happens when we get close enough to the edge that we're a little uncomfortable with what we're doing.

That's where we get noticed. That's where we challenge people's thinking. That's where we have the opportunity to make a real difference.

We spend the first part of our careers taking risks so we can eventually become comfortable. And then we have to figure out how to become uncomfortable again.

So here's my challenge for this week. Think about one idea you've been holding back because of what someone might think or how it might affect what you've already built.

What would happen if you gave that idea a real chance?

Maybe it's time to get a little closer to the edge.​
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​P.S.: Ready to take a chance on yourself?

If you've been putting off that idea, project, or big move, maybe it's time to stop waiting. My free 21-Day Challenge is designed to help you stop overthinking and start taking action. One small step every day for 21 days.

​Take the 21-Day Challenge​

This Old Marketing Podcast

In this week's This Old Marketing: Robert and I talk about Anthropic's financials, Instagram going to long-form content, and the SBA finding a home for content entrepreneurs as a business.

Until next Friday, keep building something that matters.

JP (Joe Pulizzi)

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