Learn to Leap: How Leaders Turn Risk Into Opportunity

By Kip Knight

Wish you TOOK MORE CHANCES with your LIFE and CAREER?

The biggest regret most people have later in life is what they didn't do rather tha

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knight Vision Marketing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737796411

Kip Knight

Kip Knight is an Operating Partner at Thomvest Ventures based in San Francisco and is also Founder of CMO Coaches. This is his first book. Kip has served in a variety of marketing and senior management roles at Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, YUM Brands, eBay, and H&R Block. His work has enabled him to work in over 60 countries around the world. He currently serves on two boards (Netbase and 5-11 Tactical). Kip splits his time between Orange County and the Bay area in California with his wife, Peggy. They have two sons, Tom and Chris.

Book preview

Prologue

Bob Pearson, author and chair of The Next Practice Collective

The experiences we encounter in our lives shape what we will do next, often without us being conscious of their impact.

Kip Knight, the author of Learn to Leap, has always had a keen sense of self-awareness. He possesses a unique ability to learn about a moment, while it is happening, and reflect on what he should do to take the next leap, both personally and professionally.

I have listened to Kip’s stories over many dinners and have always found them to be interesting, often funny, and inspiring. They make me reflect on my own life and remember how I have learned to leap.

In my own career, I was once told that I would probably fail at my next job (gee thanks and I didn’t), and I have been presented with awesome opportunities that were a bit scary at first. Both types of moments required me to think about what I can do and somehow summon up the courage and confidence to take the next step.

I still laugh at myself when I think of my first job. When I called Carl Byoir & Associates to inquire about an entry-level job, I was told they did not hire people out of college. In this case, I made the leap to not listen well, send them my writing samples, and keep calling, leading to a job as an assistant account executive. Years later, two long-time friends and colleagues, Bob Feldman and Bill Heyman, talked to me about joining Bob to create a new healthcare practice from scratch at GCI Group. Just me, a houseplant, a desk, and a plan. I am glad I took them up on their offer. In both cases, it required taking time to reflect on the situation, understand what I wanted to accomplish, and then doing my best to make it happen.

We can try to plan life, but it is rare that it works that way. How we embrace these moments defines our journey.

Of course, not every leap works perfectly. Nothing in life does. And that is ok. A great baseball hitter only gets a hit three out of every ten times. No one wins every time, yet we still learn from these moments as well.

What I have discovered over the years is that we learn the most when we listen carefully to the stories that have shaped others. They are remarkably similar and parallel to our own decisions. When a situation is new to us, it often requires the most reflection.

Entering stage left is our friend Kip, who reflects on stories from childhood to working at Procter & Gamble to teaching for the U.S. Government.

Kip’s exceptional storytelling skills are captured in the style he has written in this book. When you start reading, imagine yourself sitting at the dinner table with Kip, thinking about how a scenario developed, what his reaction was to the situation, and how he learned to leap. If you are like me, you’ll also laugh more than a few times.

As you read each chapter, just keep reminding yourself that taking a risk is easy. Anyone can do something silly. But taking educated risks requires thought. We need our friends to talk it out so we can think through what makes the most sense.

Of course, sometimes risks impose themselves in unwelcome ways, such as bullying, where it may be uncomfortable, yet a positive lesson can still be embedded that can carry on for many years.

Helen Keller once said, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. I have always interpreted this quote as a reminder that we make choices every day on how we interpret and handle a new opportunity or issue that has been presented to us.

Whether you are the one asking others to leap, or you are considering doing so yourself, the mindset presented by Kip inspires us to ask simple questions that can guide our decisions.

Should we trust a new process? Is this new job the right one for us? How do I go from wanting to give back to society to actually doing it? How do I give back to the next generation to share the wisdom we all have gathered? How do I protect those who might be bullied by society? Should I accept this new job? And much more. There is always a core question to consider.

Of course, questions are not enough. It is the start of a decision-making process to build the internal confidence to embrace life’s risks and opportunities and make the leap that is right for you.

Learn to Leap, in my view, is about refining and rethinking how we prepare, how we become more self-aware, and how we give ourselves the confidence to take chances in life that are meaningful. It’s all about learning how to assess and adapt to risky situations, so we make the most of every interaction along our personal journey.

Enjoy!

Introduction

It had been a long flight from Los Angeles to Seoul, South Korea when I landed in mid-afternoon. I was ready to get off the plane after a 13-and-a-half-hour non-stop flight. I managed to get a bit of sleep but was looking forward to getting a full night’s rest in a real bed. One rule of international travel I learned over the years was sleep when the locals sleep, so I was going to have dinner with the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) marketing team in Korea before getting some desperately needed shuteye.

Since taking the VP of International Marketing role several months earlier, this would be my first visit to their market. I was looking forward to learning about the great work they had been doing—the Korean team had a reputation of being one of our best in all of Asia. I was also excited to be in Korea for the first time, the Land of the Morning Calm, an ancient country with a fascinating history.

At the time, KFC was owned by PepsiCo. We were part of a corporate division called PepsiCo Restaurants International, which included KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. I’d been with PepsiCo for about five years. Even though international travel could be physically demanding, I never complained about their corporate travel policy. I was allowed to fly business class and stayed at incredible hotels. For this trip, I was booked at the Four Seasons in downtown Seoul. As standard practice, the hotel would be sending a limo driver to the airport to pick me up right outside the immigration area inside the airport.

Before leaving on this trip, an email explained that as I walked out of the immigration control area at the Seoul international airport into the main lobby, I should look for a tall Four Seasons sign with my name on it. Despite a huge crowd waiting in the airport lobby, I was pleased to see the tall Four Seasons sign with my name written in large letters. I approached a man in a suit holding the sign.

Hi, I’m Kip Knight.

The man smiled and shook my hand. I’m Mr. Park from the Four Seasons. Welcome to South Korea. I’m your driver. Do we need to go and get your luggage?

I shook my head. No, I always travel with just carry-on luggage. I’m ready to go.

We started walking down the hallway to the airport parking garage. One thing I couldn’t help but notice is although Mr. Park was wearing a suit, it was of poor quality, especially for someone working at the Four Seasons. His gaudy polyester tie wasn’t much better. Limo drivers are usually sharp dressers, but I tried not to be too judgmental. Maybe he was new to the role, or perhaps he didn’t have enough money yet for a tailor-made suit.

As we walked to the airport garage, Mr. Park indicated a slight problem with the Four Seasons limousine. It had developed engine problems right before he left the hotel for the airport to pick me up. The only vehicle available to pick me up on such short notice was his van. He apologized as we approached his vehicle. I glanced inside—the interior of the van was a total mess. It looked more like something a painter would drive to a home remodeling site.

Mr. Park told me if I preferred, he would call for a limo to come to pick me up, but it would probably be about a one- or two-hour wait. I already knew it would be about an hour’s drive to the Four Seasons hotel from the airport. All I wanted to do now was to get to the hotel, take a shower, and maybe sneak in a short nap before dinner with the Korean team. I told Mr. Park his van would be fine, and we hit the road.

As we left the airport, I started to notice the highway signs were in Korean as well as English. I always try to pay attention to how the roads are laid out any time I’m in a new city. We passed a directional sign indicating to turn off on an exit road that would take you to central Seoul, where I knew the Four Seasons was located. For some reason that wasn’t clear to me, we kept going straight and went right past the exit. Oh well, I thought, Mr. Park must know a shortcut to avoid traffic.

We’d now been driving about ten minutes at a leisurely pace and drove past a second directional sign that indicated to exit here to go to central Seoul. I was starting to wonder what was going on.

Excuse me, Mr. Park, I’m new to Seoul, but are you sure we are going in the right direction to go to the Four Seasons? All the highway signage says central Seoul is in the opposite direction we are heading.

Mr. Park kept driving and didn’t say anything.

I thought perhaps he didn’t hear me or didn’t understand what I was saying. Excuse me, Mr. Park, where are we going?.

Mr. Park glanced over his shoulder at me in the back seat of the van and stated, There’s been a change of plans. We’re not going to the Four Seasons.

I’m a trusting individual—some would say too trusting—perhaps even bordering on naive. So, I started to panic for the first time since leaving the airport and wondered what was happening.

What the hell are you talking about? I exclaimed.

Mr. Park was very calm. He continued driving the van and glanced at me in the rearview mirror.

I’m not the driver from the Four Seasons. I was in the airport lobby and saw the limo driver holding the sign with your name on it. When he went to the restroom, he left the sign outside the bathroom, and I grabbed it. Then you came out of Immigration.

My mind started racing. Who the hell was this guy? Where were we going? What did he want?

Mr. Park continued. You’re going to pay me $1,000 in US dollars or else.

At this point, as I sat in the crappy van, I quickly concluded several things:

This guy was probably not a professional kidnapper since he was asking for a small amount of money, unless kidnappers in Korea haven’t figured out yet they could get a lot more than $1,000 for an American business executive, which didn’t seem very likely.

Maybe he’d pulled this scam off at the airport before, but I doubted it. My guess was he saw an opportunity and decided to go for it without first considering the pros and cons.

Mr. Park knew absolutely nothing about me or my background, which I knew I could use to my advantage. For all he knew, I could be someone he absolutely didn’t want to mess with. I decided to test this theory out.

I started screaming from the back of the van, Do you have any idea who I am?

Mr. Park looked confused and kept driving.

The American and Korean authorities are already looking for me right now. If you don’t turn this van around immediately and return to the airport, you will wish you were never born!

My heart was racing, and I was close to freaking out. I didn’t have $1,000 with me, but I’m not sure that would have satisfied Mr. Park even if I did. I had no idea if he had a weapon or not. My gut reaction was I needed to scare the hell out of him while we were still in his van and convince him I wasn’t worth the trouble.

Mr. Park turned around and yelled, Give me my money NOW!

I yelled back, Turn this van around NOW and go back to the airport. This is your last chance! You can’t even begin to imagine the trouble you are in!

Mr. Park violently turned the steering wheel and did a U-turn in the middle of the busy expressway. He started cursing in Korean and kept looking at me in the rearview mirror. He was now driving like a madman. I was beginning to worry I was at more risk of being in a severe car accident than being kidnapped the way he was driving.

We made it back to the airport in a very short amount of time.

As we approached the terminal, my heart was racing. I kept yelling at Mr. Park to keep going if he wanted to save himself. We reached the first drop-off area. He slammed on the brakes and told me to get the hell out of his van.

He didn’t need to ask twice. I opened the van’s side door, grabbed my suitcase, and jumped out as he sped off. I didn’t even think to look at the van’s license plate since I was in a semi-state of shock.

I stood there on the sidewalk with my luggage and finally calmed down enough to start walking back to the international terminal. When I reached the airport lobby, I started looking for the Four Seasons sign with my name on it. I eventually spotted it. The driver from the hotel was visibly relieved to see me. When I told him what had just happened, he was very upset since he felt responsible for leaving his sign unattended.

I told him not to worry about it. We went over to fill out some paperwork with the airport police. After meeting with the airport police, who had a lot of questions about what had happened to me, we finally left for the hotel, this time in a real limo.

I was relieved to be safe back at the Four Seasons and shared the story of my airport arrival with my Korean team later that evening at dinner. The rest of that trip was a lot more relaxing and enjoyable thanks to the beauty of a low base.

Leap and the Net Will Appear

Twenty years later, I was sitting in a fancy restaurant in New Delhi with Mr. Wadhwa, a well-respected business leader in India. I was now in charge of the international business at H&R Block. We were looking to expand into India, a country of 1.3 billion, where the government was trying to encourage more of its citizens to file their tax returns. Nobody knew more about the Indian tax code than Mr. Wadhwa.

I was creating a Board of Advisors for H&R Block India and was grateful Mr. Wadhwa had agreed to join. It was just the two of us at dinner—I hoped to get to know him better and listen to his thoughts and advice on starting a new business in India.

Mr. Wadhwa was in his late eighties, about the same age as my parents. I started the conversation by complimenting him on his excellent health despite his age.

Age is just a number, he replied. You are as young or old as you decide you are. It’s all about your attitude about age and life—it’s just a mind game.

I had heard about the various successful companies Mr. Wadhwa and his family had created in India over the years. He had also served in the Indian government and established several professional accounting and financial organizations during his long and successful career.

This was not the first time I’d been in India or the first business I had tried to start here. I’d worked hard to get KFC India established in the late ’90s. It was a real struggle, but they finally began to prosper after a decade. I’d also worked here with eBay India, which eventually merged with a local e-commerce company called FlipKart to become the leader in that category.

Having worked in over 60 countries at this point of my career, I knew from experience India was one of the most challenging countries in the world to start and grow a business. I was curious to learn if Mr. Wadhwa had some insights on what it took to launch a successful venture in India.

When I asked Mr. Wadhwa that question, he paused and looked away from our table for a moment. Then he looked me in the eye and said, "If I had to tell you the secret of doing anything well, I would simply say believe in yourself and do your best. Whenever I had to do something I had never done before, even when I had no idea what the various challenges would be, my attitude was always simply this: leap and the net will appear."

His leap philosophy on taking calculated risks made a lot of sense to me. Over the years, I’d been keeping a journal of some of the situations I’d been in and lessons learned along the way. I thought to myself that evening, If I ever write a book about what I’ve learned in life and business and the importance of learning how to push yourself to take a chance on something, this ‘leap’ concept could be a powerful unifying theme for my stories.

The Journey is the Reward

This is a collection of stories that made a lasting impression on me at critical points in my life. They are not all as dramatic as the one about my first trip to South Korea or as insightful as my dinner with Mr. Wadhwa. The one thing they all have in common is they taught me valuable lessons that helped shape me into who I am today.

An ancient Tao expression is the journey is the reward. What I’ve collected in this book are personal stories about leadership and life. I’ve organized these stories by various virtues for each chapter, such as courage, empathy, and honesty. At the beginning of each chapter, I’ve included a dictionary definition of the virtue the chapter is about, as well as a relevant quote.

Chapter Icons: Sneak Peek at My Leap: Reflective Questions, Leap Into Action and A Moment of Zen

This isn’t a novel or an autobiography or a book necessarily intended to be read sequentially. I invite you to look over the list of chapters, find a virtue of interest, then read that chapter. Some of these stories include things that have likely happened to you at some point in your life, such as dealing with a bully, being fired, or helping others who are less fortunate than you. I’ve also included some stories that probably haven’t happened to you, such as being in the financial district in New York City on 9-11, producing a musical for your company’s 150th anniversary, meeting with the National Security Council in the White House, or walking over hot coals in your bare feet at a Tony Robbins seminar. Still, every story offers a practical takeaway.

To help you decide which chapter you might want to read next, I’ve included a Sneak Peek at My Leap at the beginning of each chapter, summarizing the stories and lessons learned in that upcoming portion of the book.

At the end of each chapter, I’ve included some Reflective Questions for your consideration that cover some of the issues in the chapter—or, even better, for you to share and discuss with others. I’ve also added a Leap into Action section, which includes potential ways for you to start to apply some of the lessons from these stories to your own life.

I conclude each chapter with A Moment of Zen. To create this, I asked some of my close friends and colleagues to contribute their thoughts to one question: What advice would you give your 25-year-old self? I was blown away by the wisdom they shared and hope you find it as powerful as I did.

One other note about my stories: While I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible, there is one exception. A few of the names have been changed. I’ve been fortunate to have had some fantastic and supportive bosses. There have been a couple of bosses who, unfortunately, I would not include in that category. When they are in a story, I’ll introduce them by simply stating, Let’s call him (or her) … and use a made-up name for the thankfully few bosses I would prefer not ever to have to work for again.

It’s never my intention to embarrass anyone deliberately, but the lessons I learned from my handful of weak bosses are worth sharing. Ironically, I learned an incredible amount from my weak bosses in terms of practical ways to motivate employees and lead a team. This has meant doing the exact opposite of what they did when I worked for them.

Push Yourself and Enjoy the Ride

Each person’s life is a unique, separate, and remarkable journey. We all have opportunities and situations throughout our lives that vary dramatically in risk and nature. Some are easy decisions; others pose difficult choices. Some challenges you can plan for; others you will have to trust your gut at the moment of truth on the right thing to do—like when you are in the back of a van in Seoul with a crazy driver demanding money.

What I’ve learned from the stories I’m sharing is that when these opportunities inevitably come along, it is usually better to say yes than no. I’m not advocating for taking foolish chances. After all, the expression look before you leap started way back in the 14th century in English literature. I’ve always tried to weigh the pros and cons of any big decision I had to make before acting. Yet the inevitable conclusion I’ve come to—along with folks much wiser than me—is that when your life is all said and done, you are more likely to regret the things you didn’t do much more than the things you did.

Take a chance. Make a stand. Share a vision of a better future. Lead from the front and trust that others will follow. Or if you must, go it alone—at least for a while. This is best summarized from the Latin expression from over two millennia ago: You must be willing to take a Saltus Fidei (leap of faith).

In the future, when you look back at your life, it’s those fleeting opportunities you will inevitably come across that can make your journey uniquely rewarding—perhaps not always financially, but absolutely from an experience point of view. It’s your level of willingness to give it a go that can turn a risk into an opportunity that makes your own journey much more satisfying than if you never took a chance.

When Neil Armstrong landed his lunar module in 1969 and was the first person to walk on the moon, his immortal words were, That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. My goal with this book is to give you the confidence and courage to make your own giant leap to do whatever it is that you have always dreamed of doing with your life. Now is the time and place to take that first small step on your journey that can lead to giant leaps later.

With that as my starting point, here are the stories about some of the fantastic people I’ve been lucky enough to work with throughout my life and career. This is how they helped me learn to leap and turn risk into opportunity.

When I moved from Bogalusa, Louisiana, a tiny paper mill town—to Baton Rouge, a much larger city, I didn’t fit in with the other kids. If you’d like to know what I looked like, imagine Buddy Holly at age 12. Only skinnier—a lot skinnier. With braces. Big metal braces. And eyeglasses. Big plastic-rimmed eyeglasses. You get the idea.

My first day of junior high school was a shock to me: there was a whole ecosystem of kids I was never exposed to in my life when I was in a small-town elementary school. The jocks. The cool kids. The outcasts. And long-haired dudes you didn’t mess with if you had any sense.

Every day I’d ride my bike to school, and without fail, the long-haired dudes would be there waiting for me—my very own welcoming party. They would call me names. Spit on me. Spit on my bike. Push me around. I tried to ignore them, but it was getting harder by the day to get away from them. They seemed to get pure joy out of making my life miserable.

One day a group of them announced they were going to beat me up. Right then and there. I figured the only chance of getting out of this would be to appeal to their sense of honor, assuming they had any.

Looking around at them—or rather, up at them, since they were each a good foot taller than me—I declared, What’s the fun in beating me up, guys? You outnumber me five to one. Where’s the sport in that?

The greasiest of the lot, Brian Landry, sneered at me. Got a better idea, stupid?

I responded, Sure, how about a supervised boxing match tomorrow.

Skinniest Boxer in the World

A bit of background would be helpful here. I had heard from some of the gym coaches that if a kid disagreed with another kid, they could have a boxing match supervised by the coaches. While that might be hard to imagine today, keep in mind this was in