What does Lloyd Christmas have to do with innovation? Aside from making a lot of questionable choices, he represents a little piece of character that leaders, innovators, and aspiring change-makers should consider.

The Chances

If the name Lloyd Christmas doesn’t quite ring a bell, he’s a character that Jim Carrey portrays in the cult classic film, Dumb and Dumber.

Lloyd Christmas: What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me… ending up together?

Mary Swanson: Not good.

Lloyd Christmas: Not good like one in a hundred?

Mary Swanson: I’d say more like one in a million.

Lloyd Christmas: So you’re telling me there’s a chance?

They probably won’t get together. But it’s possible that they do.

In the aformentioned scene, Lloyd has all the hope of success in the face of likely failure. You might be able to think of a few individuals that have decided to be daring, accepting higher levels of risk where others may choose to find a safer choice.

Imagine if Bill Gates decided to stay at Harvard and become a lawyer, rather than pursuing the dream of creating a computer company. Our world was already on track for the computer revolution, but there is no doubt that Bill’s life, and ours, changed for the better with his decision to take a risk and form “Micro-Soft” with Paul Allen.

For every single success story, like Steve Jobs and Apple or Bill Gates and Microsoft, there are hundreds more failures. It’s easy to forget companies like Kodak, Blockbuster, Research in Motion, or AOL. They at one point took risks to get to new heights, but made the wrong bet on the how long the status quo would stick around. When they are remembered, it’s often in an example of how easy it is to fail, even after garnering major success.

There’s nothing wrong with being safe. It’s perfectly reasonable to consider the risks in any decision, and it would be downright irresponsible to avoid taking the safe choice in many circumstances.

We can safely say that in almost all circumstances, driving blindfolded on a busy highway would be a bad idea. But exploring something with less than 50% certainty, like moving to a new city to start a new job, or creating a start up to explore a passian, that’s something that could possibly be a great success.

What about Lloyd?

Going back to our friend Lloyd, his chance of ending up with Mary was actually pretty close to one in a million. Through a series of events that can only be described as comedic gold, Lloyd ends up on the side of the road with his friend Harry, without Mary.

So what’s the lesson to be learned here? Lloyd chased the possibility regardless of the probability. He ended up with a stronger friendship and helped foil some bad guys.

Lloyd may not have succeeded in his goal, but Lloyd isn’t real.

The people involved in making the film are. Jim Carrey went from being the token white guy from “In Living Color” to a cherished comedian and actor. The Farelly brothers, who directed and produced the film, ended up making even more successful films.

After directing one of the worst films of 2013, Peter Farelly directed the 2018 film, Green Book, which won great accolades and critical acclaim.

Bonus Fact

Even though you might know him from Green Book or Dumb and Dumber, he also produced and directed Movie 43, one of the worst films of 2013. He won the glorious Worst Picture Razzie for it.

Chase the Possible

Sometimes taking chances in the face of probable failure can lead you to the possibility of amazing success. My only advice here is to avoid doing too many things that can’t be reversed or undone, and you’ll be okay.