Taking Risks

Photo by Micah & Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash

Today I've been thinking about taking risks. Society sends us mixed messages about risks. On one hand, we have the stories about mavericks who do things their way and have been celebrated, from Picasso through Mel Gibson's Riggs to Mark Zuckerberg; these stories are about men who behave in sometimes abhorrent ways, but they are forgiven because they're really good at what they do. We are supposed to idolise these people and want to be like them.

On the other hand, for women, for instance, speaking out or taking risks often backfires — we've seen two examples (Fiona and Harriet) in the last series of The Traitors. Sheryl Sandberg has disappeared from public discourse. The risks of non-conforming, of standing out, of saying what we really think, have roots in our evolution, times in which we would not survive without the care of the people around us. But groupthink can be dangerous to the entire group, which is why we have mavericks in the first place.