A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW

We are all brave. All of us, that is, have the tools—if we choose—to step outside our comfort zones and access that unfamiliar place where wonders happen, where new opportunities await us, allowing us to reconsider the nature of things and assign them new value.

And yet, if we are all brave, why does it seem increasingly difficult to carry out acts of courage? Surrounded by ongoing, unexpected personal and global challenges and long periods of crisis, one would hope—at least out of sheer survival instinct—to witness extraordinary acts of courage, both from individuals and society. Instead, it is precisely these events that have drained our strength to act courageously. Without even realizing it, the discomfort of being in an “uncomfortable” situation has overtaken the healthy fear and enthusiastic drive to change things, to leave a mark. Faced with conflicting and ambivalent pressures, we’ve grown accustomed to feeling crushed and confused, allowing inaction to triumph over courage.

Aristotle begins his discussion of ethical virtues with courage, and in some way, he defines it as the force that allows us to confront things that frighten us—things we could avoid facing but choose to face anyway. He considers it the first virtue because it makes all the others possible.

Having courage doesn’t mean being without fear, but rather using the energy that comes from fear, with the awareness that something more beautiful and important exists and awaits us beyond our own limitations.

Courage is the balance between cowardice and recklessness, the point of equilibrium between two opposing errors—one of which falls short and the other goes too far.

Courage is not just the heroic act, which can sometimes be driven by impulsiveness, but a potential response to life’s events that requires commitment and planning. It may find its roots in the will to face one’s fears and contradictions, learning to step beyond the familiar and gradually expanding the scope of one’s actions.

To act outside of one’s comfort zones, a set of personal skills must be developed—chief among them the ability to experiment, manage uncertainty, and gain self-awareness. These abilities become the essential foundation for embracing a way of living centered on courage, allowing individuals to recognize and interpret it within their own lives.

Acting courageously means entering a delicate space where it’s necessary to take risks. The problem is that we are “programmed” to believe that in order to feel good, we must seek stability by avoiding risks. However, in the constantly changing world we live in, it is precisely those who are unwilling to explore new territories that end up at greater risk.

Being courageous isn’t a one-time action; it’s an ongoing process. It’s no coincidence that in a society that values quantity over quality, and as mentioned earlier, dreams of stability while focusing its energy on nothingness, acts of courage have become rare. To act courageously, one must be a tireless builder, act proactively with foresight, and have a deep understanding of the surrounding context.

Courage draws its strength from context—whether social, economic, or cultural—which can either reinforce or inhibit brave actions, both individually and collectively. Contexts that are motivating and promote respect for diversity and free expression of opinions create fertile ground for acts of courage. Anyone can rediscover this virtue when supported to work systemically on their personal traits.

Every act of courage is surrounded by a great deal of strong emotions: joy, enthusiasm, but also fear and anxiety about being judged and not appreciated. It’s a bit like the emotions that accompany a creative act. In both cases, it’s necessary to break through the barriers of prejudice and accept the risk of being different.

It takes courage to be creative, along with a good dose of emotional intelligence that allows you to manage your positive and negative feelings in a balanced way, transforming them into the desire to be yourself. It requires courage because you’re dealing with the fear of making mistakes and uncertainty—you always know where you’re starting from, but you never truly know where you’ll end up. The creative process is full of false starts and errors, and to fully embrace it, you need to suspend judgment, avoiding assumptions about realities that are ultimately unreachable. When it comes to creation, there’s no absolute right or wrong, because beauty is relative, and creativity is far more about the process than the outcome.

Courage is the answer to these dark times we are living through. In the fashion industry, Alessandro Michele’s voice stands out as a courageous one, reminding us to keep dreaming despite the looming black cloud that seems to steal hope from the future and from our dreams. The collection Michele presented in Paris last September, marking his Parisian debut for Valentino, was a bold tribute to fragility and beauty.

For Alessandro Michele, human beings are fragile creatures constantly confronted with their limitations. They walk gingerly on glass that shatters under the heavy weight of a tumultuous existence. Every step carries the possibility of a stumble or a fall. This is the shadow of vulnerability that clings to every breath, yet it becomes a valuable resource, allowing us to face times of uncertainty, traumatic events, and the deep emotional wounds that challenge us. Vulnerability is a skill we need to learn, not shy away from, because with the awareness of our fragility, we can focus on the desire to move forward and the will to be reborn.

We should celebrate vulnerability because it allows us to navigate the unknown and give meaning to life, creating new spaces and new forms of beauty.

For Valentino’s creative director, beauty can become a remedy for the anxiety brought on by uncertainty and the sense of an ending. It serves as a solid foundation to cling to in order to exist within that “pavillon des folies.” Beauty is comfort, an embrace that preserves the vitality of our bodies, a shelter from life’s storms, and with rhythm and fluidity, it cradles fragility. Beauty arrives almost unexpectedly, breaking through, stirring the soul, and shaking the earth. Beauty is capable of anything—it is the most courageous response to life’s chaos.

In his work, Alessandro Michele has always celebrated the courage of imperfection and the compassion that comes from being kind to oneself first, and then to the world. We saw this firsthand in his presentation of Pavillon des Folies for the Valentino house.

As a result of this authenticity, the societal expectations imposed on our lives are abandoned, allowing us to truly be who we are by embracing imperfection. Welcoming vulnerability opens the door to two courageous attitudes: resilience and the ability to use what brought us down to rise again, a concept theorized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb as antifragility.

Antifragility goes beyond resilience and robustness. While resilience withstands shocks and remains unchanged, the antifragile improves. This quality is at the heart of everything that evolves over time: evolution itself, culture, ideas, revolutions, political systems, technological innovation, cultural and economic success, the survival of businesses, and the development of cities and civilization.

The antifragile embraces randomness and uncertainty, which also means—this is a key point—it embraces error. Antifragility allows us to face the unknown, to push further, and to welcome fragility. Moving toward antifragility can be seen as the path to navigate through the uncertainty we are experiencing. We must foster a culture that normalizes setbacks (what we currently label as failures) and teaches us to view them as just one of the many possible outcomes in life. Antifragility allows us to approach trials and errors with courage, responsibility, and a sense of lightness.

Taleb says that a gust of wind can extinguish a candle, but it also makes a fire roar. It’s not external forces that determine the sense of failure that overwhelms us, but how we choose to live and respond. For this reason, we must learn to observe the context, understand and listen to both our needs and those of society, develop new forms of communication, question all the “it’s always been done this way” embedded in our analyses and corporate philosophies, and prepare strategies to face future crises.

Celebrating the beauty in the fragility of things and life allows us to make sense of this shaken, wounded world and gives us the courage to take the necessary actions so that the next crisis not only doesn’t catch us off guard but finds us aware that there are new ways—not just to survive, but to live and find joy.