Margie Warrell - Stop Playing Safe

Dr Margie Warrell brings her diverse international experience in business, coaching and psychology — coupled with a deep passion for unlocking the potential that fear often holds hostage — to inspire braver action in today's increasingly cautious world.

Margie has walked her talk since her childhood growing up in a big family on a small farm in rural Australia. She has lived and worked around the world for more than 25 years, trusted by global brands such as Amazon, Dell, Google, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Morgan Stanley, NASA and Salesforce to deliver transformative programs that accelerate growth, improve outcomes and strengthen leadership.

A passionate advocate for women and inclusive leadership and a Women's Economic Forum honoree, Margie sits on the advisory board of Forbes School of Business & Technology and regularly shares her insights in the media including the Today show and CNN. Her advice has been featured in The New York Times, The Week, Success magazine, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal . Margie also shares insights from her conversations with global leaders and luminaries such as Richard Branson, Steve Forbes, Tony Robbins, Bill Marriott, Dr Phil McGraw, Marianne Williamson and Dr John Demartini in her ‘Courage Work’ Forbes column and Live Brave podcast.

The titles of Margie's Live Brave podcast and other best-selling books — Find Your Courage, Make Your Mark, Train the Brave and You've Got This! — reflect the passion she brings to her own leadership and life. Margie also loves adventure travel, especially long hikes in beautiful places — from climbing Kilimanjaro with her husband and their four brave-hearted children to exploring national parks near her home outside Washington, DC.

Margie would love to connect with you on social media or at www.margiewarrell.com.

The first edition of this book was written nearly a decade ago, during my first year living back in Australia after over a decade in the USA. At the time, many people were still regaining their footing in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis which had shaken their sense of security. As fear ran high, I drew on the insights of leaders I'd worked with, as well as my own research, to help people ‘rethink risk’ and move boldly forward amid the uncertainty.

This revised second edition has been written after another global move — this time from Singapore back to the USA — and another, even greater, global crisis. I think it's fair to say the COVID-19 pandemic jolted our sense of security and raised the ‘fear factor’ to whole new levels.

As I witnessed people making irrational decisions driven solely by fear (one person I knew cashed in their entire retirement savings, fearing Armageddon was nigh), I felt compelled to update this book and streamline it.

Of course, there will always be legitimate reasons for going with the safest option. Yet when uncertainty looms large, we must be all the more vigilant to discern between the fears that are serving us and those that are driving us to make overly cautious decisions in our work, in how we live and how we lead. Because while playing it too safe can provide a short-term sense of security, it ultimately keeps us from taking the very actions that would help us become more secure — individually and collectively — over the longer term.

While the world may feel like a riskier place today, the truth is that there have always been risks. The difference is that in today's digital 24/7 world, we're now continually bombarded with information that makes life appear riskier. Only when we dare to ‘lean towards risk’ and venture onto new ground can we seize the opportunities hidden within our challenges, turning our setbacks into stepping stones, and leading ourselves and others to higher ground and a more, not less, secure world.

So if the title of this book spoke to you, it wasn't by chance. I hope the pages that follow will embolden you to embrace uncertainty and take the risks required to open up new possibilities for you and those around you.

In today’s culture of fear, daring to rise above our instinctual desire to play it safe, to take brave action amid the risks, has become ever more imperative.

Please indulge me for just one moment with a little game of ‘make believe’.

Imagine stepping into the shoes of your ‘future self’, ten years from now, looking back on you today, reading this, facing an unknown future but eager to make the most of it.

What would you love to have experienced in your work and career, and in your life outside it? What impact would you love to have made on the lives of others? What skills or mastery would you like to have gained? What kind of person would you like to have become?

Ten years may feel like a long time away right now. Yet you thought that ten years ago and look … here you are.

So the next ten years is going to pass for you one way or another. The question is, what will you do with it?

Life is the lump sum of our choices. Too often, though, our choices are driven by fear — fear of what might go wrong; fear of not having what it takes; fear of making a fool of ourselves, ‘found out’ as unworthy or inadequate in some way. Often, we're not even aware of how fear is pulling the invisible strings of our daily decisions but if you're not waking up inspired by your future, then it most certainly is.

We live in a culture of fear, so it's little wonder that despite people living longer today than at any point in history — indicating fewer (not more!) threats to our survival — millions of people today spend their lives living in the shadow of fear, continually avoiding what scares them rather than pursuing what inspires them.

The term VUCA was coined to describe the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous nature of modern life. But let's be honest here — we've never had certainty! However, in our overwired lives today, our news streams bombard us with reasons to bite our nails, stock up on toilet paper and play it safe. Fear has become normalised to the point that we cannot even recognise how many decisions are driven by it.

Yet time and time again history has shown that when fear runs most rampant, brave action reaps the greatest rewards. It's why we must be deliberate not to let fear sit in the driver's seat of our lives. We must commit to being braver — in how we work, live and lead.

Countless times in my own life, from my relatively confined childhood on a small dairy farm in rural Australia to my adult life living around the world from Papua New Guinea to Singapore, I have found that each time I decide to take action in the presence of my fear — to not play life safe — I dilute the power fear holds over me and amplify my own.

The world has weathered one heck of a storm since the first edition of this book. Before the COVID-19 pandemic I used to write about how afraid some people were of killer viruses and how unlikely a pandemic actually is. Well … the unlikely event happened and most of us were caught off guard anyway. It triggered a cascading crisis that dialled up the fear factor in our homes and communities, in our schools and organisations, and at decision-making tables the world over.

Left unchecked, fear can narrow our thinking, derail our decision-making and keep us from seeing, much less seizing, the opportunities that always exist amid disruption, although often out of plain sight. It can also drive us to over-estimate the risks, making us suffer more from our fear than from the source of it.