There seems a universal law – the more you risk, the greater the reward. It governs everything we do from the obvious – gambling – to the less obvious – love.
Putting ‘yourself’ out there takes courage because it means we’re making ourselves vulnerable. Vulnerable to attack. Vulnerable to critique. Vulnerable to making mistakes that people notice. It’s much easier to make mistakes in private, when nobody is watching. After all, we still learn from those mistakes. The question is, if we reduce the risk of failing by doing it privately, is the reward – the lessons we learn – also greatly reduced?
In an age where digital communication is creating the space to protect us from vulnerability (we can craft the perfect text before attempting to communicate with another), those seeking vulnerability, or those who are comfortable with it, are becoming rare. And if there’s one another universal law in this capitalist economy it’s that scarcity creates value.
So it follows that if this is true – bigger risks equals bigger reward and scarcity creates value – then isn’t making art and sharing it widely, aka, being an artist, the most valuable thing we can do for ourselves? We stand to gain immensely from being the few who remain comfortable with vulnerability because through that vulnerability we learn more about ourselves and our place in the world than doing the opposite.
The thing about being repeatedly vulnerable is that once you’ve experienced the reward for doing it, it’s not so scary anymore because what it teaches you is the biggest reward of all – how to be comfortable with being vulnerable in the first place. That’s when the exciting stuff begins.