“Fortune favors the audacious.”

What did Desiderius Erasmus mean when he said this?

After all, even the word audacity gets wildly mixed reviews.

Common definitions include:

• A willingness to take surprisingly bold risks
• Extremely bold or daring
• Recklessly brave
• Fearless
• Extremely original
• Unrestrained
• Highly inventive
• Insolent
• Brazen
• Lively
• Uninhibited

This list easily raises levels of both excitement and discomfort. Brave? Good. Reckless? Not so good.

Famed “Shark” Mark Cuban from the popular entrepreneur reality show Shark Tank strives to be audacious on purpose, claiming some of the more desirable benefits.

“When it comes to being audacious and outrageous and over the top, do the things that make perfect sense to you, but don’t be afraid to shout it from the mountain tops just because it’s outside the box or against the grain in your industry. More often than not, you’re probably going to be right.”

This is a great attitude, but let’s face it…it’s easier said than done.

This does not mean, however, that we shouldn’t press forward – especially now. While in previous times we may have only required a relatively small number of risk takers among us to keep progress moving forward. Today it has become absolute required behavior across most industries. As Salim Ismail, author of award winning book Exponential Organizations in 2014 pointed out…“The biggest risk is not taking any risk.”

Below are some brief ideas that may help ignite your own audacious heart. They’ve helped me on occasion.

“Leap and the net will appear.”  It actually does.

“What are you waiting for?”  No really….what are you waiting for?

“Every day a new story begins.”  If things don’t go as planned, so what. Just drop it and move on.

This is my post Labor Day weekend invitation. This is your creative life. Have some fun. Experiment more. Don’t be so serious. It’s really okay. And after all…

“Freedom lies in being bold.” ~Robert Frost