Here's how you can conquer the fear of failure in Creative Strategy.

NO RISK-IT. NO BISCUIT. It's one of my favorite sports phrases that I often apply to marketing/advertising. And it holds true in almost anything in life. If you play things safe, you'll usually get the safe outcome. When you take a big gamble, there's always the chance that you fall flat on your face. But... WHAT IF it worked out? See? It's all about perspective. Living FOR that 'WHAT IF' instead of in FEAR of it can be incredibly powerful. Let the brief, the data + the KPIs keep you honest, but don't force them into folding your hand. Your best idea may be one that you discarded for fear of the risk involved. It's also why we sometimes have 'graveyard' sessions to revisit ideas that didn't make it.

You should expect to fail numerous times before massive success. Without failure there’s no learning. If anything you should want to try and fail more often. All it’s takes is a perspective shift to see failure as an opportunity to get closer to growth.

DON'T. STOP. BE-LEARNING. When I finished Film School in 2004, I was a certified editor + animator. If I'd rested my laurels on that, I wouldn't have a career now 20 years later. When I think of the rapidly changing pace of Tools/Tech in our industry, it doesn't scare me so much as it fuels me. Now that I'm focused more on strategy than editing, I often try new tools with deliberate outcomes in mind, but knowing full well it may not turn out how I'd hoped. Exploring these emergent tools will help you to not only stay open to new tactics + techniques, but it will also allow you to know how your competition might be growing/changing as well. You don't HAVE to use all the new tools, but ignoring them won't keep your competition at bay.

I'm happy to say that you're going to fail. Then you're going to fail again. Good news! Next, you're going to fail. This is everyone's path. Failure means change, change means growth, growth means becoming who you were always meant to be. There's nothing wrong with failure. Failure gives us a chance to really analyze what we're doing and what is or isn't working. Without it we would never change, and the only people who don't change are the dead.

One of the best ways to avoid failure and manage expectations is to set SMART goals. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time-bound) You can also breakdown these goals into smaller milestones and manage your progress much easier.

Conquering the fear of failure in creative strategy within the Asia-Pacific market can be exemplified by the approach taken by the advertising agency, TBWA\Asia. Known for their "Disruption" methodology, TBWA\Asia encourages their teams to view failure as a stepping stone to innovation. For instance, during the development of the award-winning campaign for Singapore Airlines, initial concepts were met with resistance and required multiple iterations. By fostering a culture where creative risks are supported and failures are treated as learning opportunities, TBWA\Asia empowered their team to push boundaries and develop groundbreaking ideas.