To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before
What does it mean to be bold, to go where you have not gone before? Even more so, where no one else has gone before — truly unchartered territory?
I’ll give you an example: as I write this I’m in at Coffee Bar, a hip coffee shop that caters to the laptop and espresso crowd. I’ve passed by this place for the past year thinking it looks like a neat place to plunk down for a few hours of writing, yet I’ve never given it a try. While not truly unchartered territory (coffee shop culture is nothing new in San Francisco), it is new territory for me; it’s out of my neighborhood, takes effort to get to, I’m unfamiliar with the protocol, and feels a bit intimidating due to the dot com-ness of the place. Turns out, now that I’m here, it’s only taken a short while for me to get the hang of things and settle in. A year of wondering, a bit of effort to get here, 30 minutes of adjusting, and here I am, writing. Not exactly bold in terms of searching the stars, yet bold enough for me on a Monday morning.
This example may seem silly, yet I wonder how many places in your life you think about being bold and yet hold yourself back?
A new coffee place is a pretty low risk venture – what if you’ve got something on your mind that truly is new and bold? Perhaps a line of books that no one else has written, a new web-based business catering to ideas and services others are afraid to offer? A way of treating those in your industry that bucks convention and sees everyone on an equal playing field? Creation of a new thought movement and physical space unlike anything the marketplace has seen before?
Each of these are real examples of my clients that are pushing their boundaries and those of their industries, exploring the boundaries of what’s possible, what serves the marketplace and what excites them. It’s a short jump from these to boldly flying through space in a ship, and it’s this kind of expansiveness that made space travel possible in the first place. Today see these possibilities for yourself and be willing to boldly go where you have not gone before. You, and the world, will be glad you did.
Where are you boldly going today?
