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How to think bold and dream big, and a realization

‘Tis the season for annual dinners and last night was another one. When the keynote speaker took the stage and began his litany of jokes, I turned to my friend and asked, “Is he drunk?” My friend’s eyes got wide as he raised his eyebrows and cocked his head.

Better drunk then boring, we shrugged.

But as the speaker went on, his short stature quickly filling up the two big screens on his left and right, and then the entire room, I realized that he was certainly not drunk. He was Texan. A Texan State Senator and former Mayor of Austin to be exact – Mr. Kirk Watson.

With a southern charm, certain bravado and blatant honesty that made us Midwesterners simultaneously laugh and blush, Watson spoke on how to think bold and dream big:

First of all, don’t be afraid to think bold and dream big, Watson drawled in his thick accent. Failure is good, as long as you learn from it. As long as you don’t go cry in a corner, he said. As long as you take action from what went wrong.

And don’t wait for something better either. “My wife tried that and she still got stuck with me!” Watson warned. Take action with the opportunities that are in front of you.

Find both the chicken and the egg. Go after them both. And then find things that are neither the chicken nor the egg:

“Do you want to know what the number one bumper sticker is in Austin?” Watson asked. “Well, I’ll tell you. It’s not ‘Kirk Watson for Senate’ as it should be. No, it’s not. It’s ‘Keep Austin Weird.’ That’s it. That’s what it is. ‘Keep Austin Weird.’ That means keeping Austin ‘Austin.’ Keeping it open. Out of weird you get bold ideas and vision.”

With bold ideas and big vision, you are not going to meet everyone’s concept of perfection, so don’t even try, Watson said. Don’t even try. If you try to please everyone, you will come up with a plan that is unworkable or someone will just say no and that will be the end.

He goes on, “Let me tell you about my 84% rule. If 84% of the people say, ‘Huh, yeah, I kind of like that idea’ and it sounds like progress, take it and run.” How did he come up with the 84% rule? That’s the percentage he was elected mayor with.

Avoid the nitpickers, naysayers and know-it-alls. The people who think they are just so much smarter than you, he said. The people who think you’re dumb. They’re in the 16%. Their negative energy will bring you down. Really, it doesn’t matter how pretty you are. You’re not going to make everyone happy.

Instead, focus on your assets. You got ‘em, Watson said. Utilize what you have.

And be willing to admit your weaknesses, Watson advised. He then told us simply that he was a cancer surivior. A testicular cancer survivor. He has had three surgeries and has gone through chemotherapy. After all that, they found another tumor in his abdomen.

But that was in 1995. He’s cured now. He assures his wife that if anything happened to her, or between the two of them, he wouldn’t want a young woman. He wouldn’t want to start a new family. He loves his family. And she tells him, “You know dear, with all they cut off of you, you won’t have many young women coming after you.”

“And that’s true!” Watson stated triumphantly. The point from the story is that he admits his weaknesses. “And another is that I’m a survivor,” he said. “Hope matters.”

Afterwards, I approached Kirk and introduced myself. He was just as excited to meet me as he was on stage, and we talked about blogging (yes, he has a blog too), and the ability to say in his speech, or write in his blog, whatever he wants. We discussed the ability to execute the “what you see is what you get” attitude, which inevitably lead to a discussion on credibility.

And I don’t know if it was the charming accent or what, but more than ever, I got why people were so concerned with credibility. I mean, Kirk has built a bridge for goodness sakes. And while someday I might build a bridge too, I haven’t accomplished such feats yet. I have more work to do. That makes me excited, because being a little like Kirk Watson is definitely something to look forward to.

Texan moxie.

By Rebecca Healy

My goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it, and earn more money.

15 replies on “How to think bold and dream big, and a realization”

Sounds like a lot of wisdom in that Texas drawl.

It took Thomas Edison over 100 tries to create the light bulb. When asked if he consider this a failure he replied, ‘No, I simply found 100 ways not to create a lightbulb’.

Failure can definitely be good.

Thanks for sharing.

Failure is something that is useful for all…as long as you get up from it and try again. So many expect that things should be easy and that they should succeed immediately because they heard of this ONE person who did something on their first try. They don’t realize that this is the exception, rather than the rule.

Think of how unsatisfying life would be if you had total success the first time you did something.

@ Scott – Love the quote from Edison. Thank you!

@ Alice – I’m glad you enjoyed it. Austin and Madison are like brother and sister I think :) Thank you for the comment!

@ Dan – People often think I have a southern accent. Don’t know why, but if it makes me more wise, it’s all good. ;)

@ Rosie – that’s the quote that stuck with me too.

@ Eric – Oh, I agree. Since I started my new job, I’ve become increasingly comfortable with the concept of failure and making mistakes. You have to be. Thanks for the comment!

Great post. I never get tired of reading about people like this who just go for it, listening to others as they go but still running out what they have in their heart to do. I’m wrestling with this right now and have learned that you have to roll with the process, that sometimes the waiting is a necessary precursor to the action that will soon become apparent.

Whu’da thought that after all these years of being called weird, it would become a strength and a marketable trait? My favorite response to my wife mentioning something new about me that’s weird?

“Add it to the list”.

The list is becoming rather long. And I couldn’t be happier.

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