When it comes to politics, I often get asked why I remain upbeat, in spite of the way the political world works. To each person that asks me this, I explain that I am consciously naïve.
The average company founder is in their early 30s when they start their company. Why?
In business, your 30s is a time when it’s common to possess sufficient world experience to know how things work, but insufficient world experience to have lost optimism and vision. In your 30s, you still have your youthful naivety, if you will, but it is checked by an understanding you didn’t possess 10 years before.
The same is true in politics. To change the world around you, you need to balance experience with vision. This balance can come (and remain) at any age – your 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s (or later!). But you must have this balance if you want to effect change.
In politics, without world experience, you’ll find yourself suggesting schemes that have failed before, or you may be easily influenced by bad actors. But without optimism and vision, there is a good chance you’ll choose not to fight the status quo with enough vigour to make an impact.
Just as starting a company is hard, being a successful politician is hard. There is a myriad of different, competing interests you must balance before you can be effective.
But there is a great prize for being effective in politics. An effective politician doesn’t just launch a new product or increase company revenue. An effective politician can lay the foundations that lead to national business success, improve healthcare outcomes for millions or raise educational standards for a generation.
But, to do this, you need to remain consciously naïve. Willing to push though, even though you know the chances are slim. Able to maintain your vision, even as you are rebuffed on the way.
It is easy to become cynical in politics. But the best must resist this. The best understand reality, while keeping an inquisitive, optimistic and deliberately naive nature. Some may say this is ‘grit’. But I think the phrase consciously naive fits more neatly.
If you are interested in politics, choose to be inquisitive, in the face of criticism. Choose to dream for better, when those around you say it isn’t possible. Choose to keep your vision in tact, through the rough and tumble. That is being consciously naive.
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