Company Blog

Scaredy Cat

by Adam Zack — January 30, 2019

Sometime fear causes us not to act.

The greatest fear I ever felt in my life happened about 15 years ago. I was babysitting my two nephews one weekend. They were about 8 and 6 years old. I lived in Palm Desert, California, so the weather was either nice or hot. It was warm enough to swim, and I had a pool and spa. With the back doors open, the boys were running around pretty much being boys. I had girls, so was not quite used to full-speed all the time and volume up to 11 that comes with boys.

One second they were there, and the next I couldn’t find them. I go out to the pool and spa, and there at the bottom of the spa is my oldest nephew. I did not freeze in terror. I jumped in fully clothed and grabbed him, thinking ahead to my next steps of CPR and calling 911. I pull him up and the little bastard blinks, looks at me and tells me he was just holding his breath and playing. He still laughs about it today. Fear sometimes causes us to act, but more often in everyday non-emergency situations, fear causes us not to act. But what would you do if fear was not an option and it was OK to fail? You might think most people would haphazardly go about making carefree, spontaneous choices. What do they have to lose, it’s OK to fail, right? I don’t think so, but I do think that our business would be better, more cutting edge, more relevant if we weren’t so scared of failing, or what other people would think of us if we failed.

More than ever, our beloved grocery business needs bold decisions that take reasonable risk. That idea that you’re not 100% – or even 75% – sure will work is what is required to differentiate. So give yourself permission this week to fail. Ignore fear. Do something great.