To Get Attention, You Need to Take Chances

Following up on my post about media-friendly messages: no one wants to hear about how you played it safe. We live an inherently risky world — after all, none of us knows if today will be our last. Even if we don’t think about our mortality all the time, we are drawn to stories of other people taking risks and testing the bounds of a safe and comfortable life.

Unfortunately, as I said earlier, this runs counter to most business management thinking, much of which centers on either avoiding or minimizing risks. After all, the most important rule of business isn’t “drop your drawers and show everyone your behind” — it’s “cover your butt.” (or substitute your own synonym for “butt.”)

Yet time and again, we are reminded that it is the risk-takers, not the risk-avoiders, who get attention. Today’ example comes from the front of the business section of yesterday’s New York Times: there you will find a picture of the CEO of Southwest Air, Gary Kelly, dressed in drag and sitting in the cockpit of one of his planes (that’s him on the left):



From the Times:

For proof that Southwest is sticking with its oddball ways, look no further than its chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, who transformed himself from a buttoned-down C.P.A. to one of Corporate America’s most colorful bosses.

Key words: Button-down CPA… transformed…most colorful.

Here’s the lesson: you can continue to play it safe, but if you do, you’ll be hurting your chances for media coverage, because there are companies like Southwest out there that are willing to take the chances that get them prime media coverage for their messages.