What is a Courage Brand?
If you’re reading this post, then you have probably already gathered that our company has taken a hard stance on working solely with courageous companies.
Courage is something we take quite seriously around here.
According to Aristotle, courage was considered the very first virtue because it made all other virtues possible. Currently in the spotlight Peter Thiel has stated, “Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.”
Activating courage has helped transform a number of heritage brands that were stuck in the abyss of normalcy into a Courage Brands. Brands like Dominos, Always and Old Spice are just a few revived brands who have more purpose, meaning and financial success than ever before.
If they can do it, so can any brand open to being helped. In order to be courageous, there first must be a commitment to willingness. As Brene Brown writes, “Every transformational leader has a willingness to be uncomfortable.”
So what is a Courage Brand?
Before I answer that, let’s first go back to the beginning and audit the way society looks at the word “courage.”
If the definition of courage is to do something that frightens you, then I suppose I am setting out to do just that: giving it a friendlier, new and improved facelift so that more people will harness, recognize and actualize courage in their everyday lives.
It’s time to repair a word.
Let’s get ready to meet the three necessary components to the courage story: the three constants you need to recognize courage in real time.
They are:
- Knowledge
- Faith, and
- Action
Knowledge, faith and action are the matchstick, tinder and wood that work together to fuel courage. It’s the sum of these parts that combine to create a perfectly mixed cocktail that takes the ultimate form of courage.
To begin, courage always starts with knowledge. Since you’re never going to be able to gather all of the universe’s knowledge on a topic, at some point you will have to rely on inner belief, better conveyed as faith. When you build that faith, then, it’s time to do something about it. That’s turning it all into action.
It’s important to note that you need all three levers of knowledge, faith and action for it to be considered courage. Two of three in any combination is not courageous and how we ended up in this mess in the first place.
Gathering knowledge, building faith, then taking no action is paralysis. We’ve all been in situations where we knew what we needed to do, but for some unknown reason, didn’t pull the trigger. As motivational maverick Grant Cardone perfectly puts it, “Courage comes to those who act, not to those who think, wait, and wonder. The only way to hone this trait is by taking action.”
On the other hand, having faith then taking action without proper knowledge is reckless. It’s jumping out a plane without a parachute. Remember, courage always starts with obtaining wisdom. Maya Angelou reminds us that when we know better, we do better.
Finally, gathering knowledge then taking action without feeling inner faith is simply too safe. This is status quo. If you don’t feel either a little alive or a bit nervous on the inside, in a saturated world full of consumer choices, it just won’t be enough to make your brand rise above the fray.
Acquiring knowledge, building faith, then taking action is courage. The more you build up your knowledge, the more you build up your faith. The more you’re building up faith, the more courageous action you should take.
This shifts us from our definition of courage to our working definition of a Courage Brand:
A Courage Brand is a brand that willingly addresses its business fear(s) by:
- Gathering knowledge,
- Building faith, then
- Taking action
What’s behind every thriving Courage Brand? A courageous group of internal believers who confront and address (vs suppress) business fears head on. They are willing to do the right thing — even when it’s hard — for the greater good of propelling the beliefs of their company forward.
All of this will be covered in my book, Return on Courage, which will be released in 2017. What I’ve learned from my own book writing journey is that a majority of companies 1) lack courage in business. Those who say they are risk-averse, unbeknownst to them, are courage-averse, and 2) lack the necessary training to make courageous decisions in business. Since we don’t believe courage, deemed a soft skill (like Emotional Intelligence), has a place in the work place, we were never taught to activate the skill. Courage can be taught with practice and training.
Our company has taken a hard stance on working solely with courageous companies.
We’re wildly passionate about helping willing partners shrink their largest business fears, ultimately transforming them into Courage Brands.
