“Stay Dangerous” — A Mindset for Resilient Professionals

I heard this phrase in a movie once: “Stay dangerous.”

It stuck with me, not as a call to violence, but as a reminder to keep developing myself to become more resilient and antifragile in a world that’s becoming more uncivil, unpredictable, and harder to navigate.

You see it in the news, I hear it in conversations in my training sessions, and I hear it from leaders all the time.

Staying dangerous means hardening yourself to be prepared and not paranoid in an uncertain world.

Here are five things I believe are important to do this:

1. Learn to regulate your emotions so you respond to the world and not react to it.

   
   

2. Learn self-defense so that you can walk through life with more confidence, more vigilance, and less fear

   
   

3. See the world as it really is - a place that is neither good nor bad - a place filled with both good and bad people.

   
   

4. Take responsibility for your own safety and that of your family. Assume no one is coming to save you - it's your job.

   
   

5. Keep developing yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, and prepare yourself against unexpected shocks to the system.

This will help you be a better person and a better professional because incivility is just as common in the workplace as it is in the everyday world - it is just hidden behind a professional title and a sharp outfit.