Drawing on Courage

Book excerpt: A practical, illustrated guide to overcoming the challenges of creative work, including where to start, how to give or get feedback, when to change direction, and how to stand up for what matters, from Stanford University’s world-renowned d.school. “Ashish Goel’s magnificently beautiful book illuminates a powerful new way to think about, discover, and act with your own personal courage.”—Dan Roam, international bestselling author of The Back of the Napkin and Draw to Win The everyday moments of creative work can be rife with fear and fraught with risk. Bringing ideas into reality takes courage! In Drawing on Courage, designer, entrepreneur, and d.school teaching fellow Ashish Goel examines what it takes to be courageous. Using comics to illustrate real-world situations with humor and insight, Goel explains the four stages of every courage journey: fear, values, action, and change. And he helps you develop the skills you need to master each stage (even if it scares you), from embracing fear and defining the values that drive you forward to taking action when you're unsure and adapting to the changes that result from your courage. Each chapter features a series of tools designed to develop a mindset of fearlessness: Open the Tap to generate new ideas; develop A Risky Streak to take the all-important first step; or create an Origin Story to remember your purpose. Whether you're launching a side hustle or trying to convince your company to recycle, creativity takes pluck, nerve, and grit. This indispensable guide will help you develop all of those skills and more.