Have you ever sat in a meeting waiting for someone—anyone—to say the actually crazy idea?
You know the one.
The one that sounds a little dumb, a little risky, a little too much.
The one that never gets said because nobody wants to be the person who said it.
That’s exactly the problem. And my friend and fellow speaker Josh Linkner has a name for it: daring to suck.
Josh is a five-time tech entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, venture capitalist, and jazz guitarist. He’s launched over 100 startups and spent his career proving that creativity isn’t a gift you’re born with. It’s a learnable skill. One that only grows when the cost of a bad idea feels survivable.
I’ve been sitting with this idea ever since Josh introduced it, and I’ve started incorporating it in my own world.
In fact, during a recent podcast with my guest Chris Dyer, we explored some guardrails for implementing “dare to suck” with your own teams. Chris, if you’re reading this, thanks for contributing to this list!
Here are three “sucky rules” that make “dare to suck” more than a feel-good phrase.
Rule #1. Permission has to be structural, not just verbal. Telling your team “bring me your crazy ideas!” is not enough. People need a container for it. That means putting it on the agenda, naming it, and making it a ritual. When there’s a designated space for bad ideas, the pressure lifts and the real thinking starts. Without that structure, everyone stays safely, quietly mediocre.
Rule #2. Leaders go first, and they go all in. You don’t inspire “dare to suck” by talking about it. You model it. Your willingness to say the half-baked thing out loud, to float the idea that might not land, is what gives everyone else permission to do the same. If you only show up polished, your team will too. And polished is too constrained.
Rule #3. Iterate visibly, fail loudly, and repeat. The cultures where people feel safe enough to try something new aren’t the ones where everything works. They’re the ones where the failures get announced just as clearly as the wins. We tried this, it didn’t work, and we’re moving on. That transparency is what builds trust. And trust is what makes people brave enough to try again tomorrow. Creative capacity develops only when people believe a bad idea won’t cost them everything.
I’ve started bringing this into my own meetings and, honestly, into my own thinking. As I’ve explained to my own keynote audiences, shifting isn’t just about choosing better words. Sometimes it’s about choosing braver ones.
Be positively altered.