Simon Sinek argues courage isn't something you find inside yourself but something others give you. A safety net of trust and friendship, like a trapeze net or parachute, is what lets you take risks and speak up. Leaders who build this kind of backing create teams brave enough to act with integrity.
Chapters
None of us, a total of zero people on the planet, are strong enough to do what we're talking about alone. It's too difficult. This thing called life, this thing called leadership, it's just none of us is that smart or that strong to do it alone, which is one of the reasons I'm so obsessed about friendship right now, which is this idea of having courage to be optimistic, to be able to talk about difficulty but to stay to stay positive about the future, the courage to be available emotionally, the courage to be there for someone, the courage to ask for help. You know, none of us have that internal fortitude. Courage is external. You know, the reason a world-famous trapeze artist has the courage to try a brand new death-defying act for the first time, it's because of the net. It's the net that gave him the courage. The reason you have the courage to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, it's the parachute on your back. It's the external thing that gives you the courage. All we need is one person in our life, just one, who says, "I believe in you. I got you. And if this whole thing goes sideways, I will still be there for you." And that gives you the strength to do whatever needs to be done. That's why it's important to talk about all the things you're going through, the good and the bad, because you need those people, you need to build that trust, we need to build that trust. So that somebody can be there for us. And by the way, I know we're not just talking about personal lives. This is what we're talking about is solid leadership, right? I want my team to have the courage to do difficult things. I want them to have the courage to say no to things that put us out of integrity. I want them to have the courage to speak up and speak out to me, to somebody on the team. I want them to have the courage to put their ideas forward. And the only way that that's gonna happen is if I make them feel that I have their back when things go wrong.
