"Playing it safe is about fear.": A Conversation with Chase Jarvis

It's time for a new interview! Next up: Chase Jarvis, founder of CreativeLive and author of the new book "Never Play It Safe: A Practical Guide to Freedom, Creativity, and a Life You Love."

Our interview series features interesting people with something to say that the world needs hearing. Let me know what you think—we’ll continue to experiment and evolve along the way. 🙏

Introducing Chase

I’m so excited to introduce you to my longtime friend Chase Jarvis!

Chase is well-known for many things, so you might already be aware of him—but just in case not, there’s a lengthy bio below. What I’d like to say before the interview is that Chase is one of the most interesting, creative, and generous people I know.

Over the years, I’ve seen him push boundaries and inspire countless people to pursue their work with intention and ambition.

This week, his brand-new book is out: Never Play It Safe. Naturally, I love the title. 😉

Here are a few highlights from Chase’s extensive bio:

Chase Jarvis is an award-winning artist, a serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and one of the most influential photographers of the past decade. He has created campaigns for Apple, Nike, Red Bull and dozens of other Fortune 100 brands.

Chase has had fine art shows in the USA, Europe, and the Middle East, was a contributor to the Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times story Snowfall, and earned an Emmy nomination for directing and producing the music documentary Portrait of a City.

He also created Best Camera – which won “App of the Year” honors on the Apple App Store and was the first app to use photos as the basis for a social network.

A pioneer in at the intersection of creativity and learning, Chase wrote the book Creative Calling, an instant best seller which has since been translated into a dozen languages, and was the Founder/CEO of CreativeLive, where more than 50 million students have learned photography, video, design, music and business from the world’s top experts—a company that was acquired in 2021 by Fiverr (FVRR: NYSE).

He’s been a keynote speaker on six continents, an advisor to many of the world’s most successful brands, and a guest at the Obama White House, the United Nations, the Library of Congress, 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, and the DIFC in Dubai.

Chase lives with his wife, Kate, and their dog Bodhi in Seattle, and serves as a volunteer director for several non-profit boards.

Naturally, we’re more interested in the person behind the impressive bio. And since this is

🌻 A Year of Mental Health

, I’m interested in how people think about wellbeing in general.

So let’s have some questions and answers with Chase! (There’s also a short audio recording from him—scroll down for that.)

Qs & As with Chase Jarvis

• What does mental health and wellbeing mean to you?

A few years ago I spent some time with the brilliant writer

Elizabeth Gilbert

and said something to me that I’ll never forget: “Taking care of my mental health is my full time job,” she said, “and my writing is a hobby.” That hit hard. I’ve taken it to heart—and put that philosophy into action—ever since. In particular, given that our experience of the world corresponds tightly on what and how we focus or direct our attention, the work we put in to manage this is important. 

As someone who has struggled with this at times, I have over the past 8 years  developed, iterated, and dialed in a list of 10 daily behaviors that I track and—when I am able to complete them all—they provide a foundation that helps me KNOW I’ll be okay. This isn’t to say I’ll always thrive or never have off days, but it’s the baseline of both my mental and physical health. This set of behaviors gives me the confidence to trust that I’m in charge of directing my attention—focusing on what truly matters—and gives me the strength to navigate whatever I might be experiencing.

• What is your primary or most important message?

My most important message is reminding people that all the best stuff in life is on the other side of your comfort zone. Safety is an illusion. And when I say safety, I don’t mean seat belts and sunscreen. I don’t mean calculated risks or protecting your downside. And I don’t mean personal and emotional safety, both of which are essential to our freedom and well-being.

The safety—or rather the ‘playing it safe’—I’m talking about is the kind that keeps most people living lives to a fraction of their potential. It’s listening to the voice in your head that says, “Who do you think you are to want something more?” It’s sometimes delicately—and other times blatantly—hiding from yourself, or perhaps even out—right ignoring who you truly are and thereby limiting your own greatness. It is what keeps so many of us stuck and betraying ourselves—however large or small we might measure it—over and over again.

Ultimately, playing it safe is about fear. And fear is only optimized for survival—not creativity, happiness, joy, health, connection, harmony, fulfillment, or any of the gifts you have to give or receive in this life. Because, truly, all the best stuff in life lies just beyond our fears. You can do hard things. And, while at first blush, the idea of being ok with discomfort—even seeking it—without the right tools and proper training can be scary, it’s only until you realize—actually remember—that the tools you need all naturally reside within you.

THIS is the topic of my newest book Never Play It Safe: a practical guide to freedom, creativity, and a life you love. It’s about reactivating those tools within you; carving that path back to trusting yourself and building the resilience that you need to live life on your terms.

• What’s something contrarian or highly unusual that you passionately believe?

Our intuition is the most powerful tool in our human experience that we know the least about.  In the realm of decision-making, conventional wisdom once held up the conscious, rational mind as the pinnacle of reliability and efficacy. We believed it to be thorough and deliberate, the bastion of sound judgment. However, the latest insights from psychology tell us otherwise: revealing that the conscious mind, though deliberate, is often slow and prone to fumbling. It’s as if we’re navigating on foot through an elaborate labyrinth with just a headlamp—we can’t get around very fast, and we’re only able to illuminate a small fraction of the complete path at any one time.

What we now know is that intuition is a far more powerful, even -if-enigmatic process operating beneath the surface of our conscious awareness… and that learning to strengthen and trust it, can create amazing leverage for us in life. 

In my own life, the lives of my friends and those I’ve studied, intuition has always played a key role in helping to make 1,000 tiny—and other times massive—decisions.  Learning to train and trust your intuition, therefore, ought to be an urgent task.

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Chase’s Audio Recording 🎙️

I usually ask our interviewees to make a short audio recording in addition to the written questions. This isn’t a long podcast interview, it’s just five minutes long—so you don’t want to skip it. Here’s the one from Chase! ⬇️

Okay, back to some more Qs and recommendations!

• What’s difficult for you right now? What are you struggling with? 

By far the most difficult thing in my life right now is that my mom is very sick. She’s been in the hospital for weeks from the downstream effects of diseases that cause cognitive impairment—and the outcome for her is still unclear.  I’m simultaneously inspired by her resilience and heartbroken and overwhelmed to be reminded of how fragile life really is.

• What is a simple thing (or 2-3 simple things) we can do to be better?

1. Invest. Invest in yourself. Build trust. Build habits. Be patient. The best time to start investing was 20 years ago. The second best time is today ;).

2. Grace. Extend a lot of grace to yourself and others. Nailing this whole human being stuff is tough. 1% better everyday, compounds quickly.

• Lastly, what are a few things you’d like to recommend to our community?  

I’m most often drawn to non-fiction books but my wife Kate and I are currently reading aloud to each other an amazing fiction work by Dave Eggers called The Eyes & The Impossible.  Technically it’s a children’s book (won the Newbery Medal) but don’t let that dissuade you. It’s a beautiful, playful story, layered with meaning and so many simple lessons. Sure to bring joy to anyone.

If you can see LCD Soundsystem perform live, you should do it. 

Big Thanks to Chase!

Be sure to pick up his new book Never Play it Safe (I’m reading it right now!). You can also follow him on Instagram, where he posts daily.

I hope you enjoyed the interview! More of them are in the works, so be sure you’re subscribed—and stay tuned. 🙏

See also

"The world is a better place when I take up space": A Conversation with Marc Typo

"There’s no one life script for everyone": A conversation with Sari Botton

"Wellbeing is about capacity": A Conversation with Emma Gannon