Creating something new can be scary: you’re never completely sure it will work. First you convince yourself that you can, then you promise others that you will… all the while fearing that maybe it won’t. That worry is the price you pay for trying. The night before the new online recruiting software went live for the opening of the Wynn in Las Vegas, there were still doubts that it might not work. We had a paper back-up plan but that would be a hard pill to swallow. I held my breath – hopeful that something that had never been done before would work as planned. At the appointed start time, we waited for the first online applications to come in, and when nothing happened, we waited a little longer. My boss was looking at me with that “I told you so look”. Finally, the first application arrived after 7 excruciatingly long minutes; the second 30 seconds later. 12 hours later there were 12,500; 3 months after that the total was 122,000. The fear of failure quickly turned into an adrenalin rush of success. After the fact, it’s easy to gloat about any successful outcome, but the fear of failure is often the price of imagination and innovation. Planning, collaborating, and going slow are the best ways to manage that fear. Be a careful and cautious planner if you’re going to try something new today.
William Thomas Harris III (born 1940): American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter
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