Page 94 - How We Lead Matters

Worth the Risk

“I haven’t seen a movie in five years,” she announced. Sharing the stage with
this greatly accomplished woman who later would become the finance min-
ister of France, I felt a bit ashamed that I actually had seen several movies
during that period.
Christine Lagarde and I had been asked to talk about women in business
at an event hosted by the French-American Foundation and the French
Institute Alliance. At the time, she was a partner at the global law firm Baker
& McKenzie. Now, as a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet, she is
working to make changes in the labor market and economic environment to
ensure France’s competitiveness.
I always look forward to those occasions when Christine and I find our-
selves together at various events. Through these chance encounters, I learn
so much. Recently she made an interesting observation.
She pointed out that while the American lexicon is filled with sayings
that give people permission to try and possibly fail, this is not the case in
France. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” “It’s not whether you win
or lose, it’s how you play the game.” “Get back on the horse and ride.” These
apparently have no equivalents in the French culture. It, therefore, should
come as no surprise that the environment in France is quite risk-averse in
regard to entrepreneurship.
I know from my own family’s experience and the success stories of
countless others that entrepreneurship fuels the innovation that delivers solu-
tions, fills needs, and creates jobs. As a nation, it’s a game you want to be in.
In this essentially borderless era of intertwined economies and mega-markets,
it seems to me that it is much riskier not to risk.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 77