Kelly gets courageous with former Google executive Jenny Wood to talk about her new book, “Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It.”  

So much of this book zigs when other’s zag and you talk about getting comfortable with discomfort which is such an improv thing. 

“The vast majority of us struggle with a fear of failure, fear of unknown, fear of uncertainty, fear of judgment of others. And by the time I started writing this book, I had coached tens of thousands of Google executives, non-Googlers, artists, entrepreneurs, creatives – who know, inside and outside of the company directly or indirectly on success and leadership and chasing after what they want. And the theme that came up was the relationship to fear. That was the thread. Wild courage is the process of feeling that fear and taking action anyway. It’s the set of tools to go after what you want and get it. And I mean, you’re absolutely right that that all starts with discomfort because if you’re comfortable, you’re not scared and there’s no fear.” 

You talk about how many of us keep our backpack packed – and this stems from a specific colleague of yours, right? 

“Yeah, so I had this colleague at Google who kept this nylon gray backpack under her desk and never took it to the gym, never unpacked it. And finally, I said, ‘What’s in the backpack?’ And she said, ‘Picture frames and knickknacks from my desk.’ And she said, ‘But I have to confess, Jenny, I’m so, so scared that someone’s going to realize their mistake in hiring me, that I can’t bring myself to unpack my bag.’ And that’s why I say when you keep it packed literally or metaphorically, you are limiting your potential. You’re limiting your creativity. But think about that. How often do you keep your backpack packed? How often do you not fully display your talents and your skills and your knickknacks and your framed pictures?” 

This is also why you encourage people to be shameless. 

“Yeah, well, I call this ‘insecure vibes,’ right? Like, you can really give off insecure vibes. So, shameless is a cue to find your swagger, audacity. Shamelessness is a survival skill. And so how will you learn whether you’ve got the goods if you don’t act like it first? So at least first start acting like you belong there by unpacking the bag and putting the knickknacks on the desk, whatever that means for you metaphorically.” 

Photo Credit: Tim Gillies