Is Cool Courageous?

This may be an odd premise at first glance, but I feel strongly about the requisite courage required to, in fact, be cool. I had a business conference call recently with multiple parties collaborating and the main goal for working together is designing a “cool” experience. The main impediment to achieving our goal, in my opinion, was a lack of courage. Let me explain. 

There’s nothing cool about protecting, withholding, and restricting. Have you ever seen a limited effort or scarcity mindset at work and thought, “Now that is cool”? Of course you haven’t. Doing a front flip off the high dive, so to speak, is cool because it’s courageous. Walking to the edge of the high dive, turning around, and walking down to the low diving board for a pencil dive is never cool.  

Conversely, when we look at epic examples of cool: Johnny Cash, Laird Hamilton, Matthew McConaughey, Serena Williams, Batman, Slash. You get it. We see vulnerability and courage. The things they do and say and wear are diametrically opposed to protecting, withholding, and restricting. 

If you ask me, the verdict is in. If you want to be cool, you’d better be courageous.