Jul
26
Taking Risks
Filed Under Career, Money, Motivation & Purpose, Relationships | 14 Comments
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Are you afraid to launch your own business? Are you afraid of losing what money you have? Let me ask you this: Why? Sure, maybe you’ll lose all of your money and be completely broke. Then again, you were completely “broke” when you were born too. Plus back then, you didn’t have any experience, or know anything. Yet, you turned out just fine. You have whatever money you have now, an interesting life, and plenty of stories to tell. If you weren’t afraid of being broke back then, why are you so afraid of being broke now?
Maybe you have a family and you think you have responsibilities to live up to. Well, your spouse was just fine before he/she met you. If you’re broke now, he/she should still be fine. Besides, your relationship shouldn’t be based on your money, and shouldn’t hold you down from achieving your own goals. What if you have children? Well, that’s a better argument, but everywhere, kids have grown up without a whole lot of money in the family, and do just fine (I, myself, am one of these kids – I actually did much better than other kids in school because my family didn’t have a lot of money). In fact, you might end up teaching your kids how to take risks and live life, even if you fail yourself. Sure, put some money aside so that they don’t starve, but you should be able to pursue your dreams.
Another thing to realize that you are always taking risks in life anyway. If you get on a plane, you have something like a 1 in 500k chance of dying. If you cross a street, you have like a 1 in 1 million chance of getting hit by a car. If you stand around, there’s like a 1 in 1 billion chance a bullet will just randomly hit you or something. Anything you do, you’re taking a risk of some sort. You get to choose what kind of risk you take though, so why not choose the one most in your favor?
If you plan on working all your life, you risk never being much career wise. You risk never making it big, and getting the things you want. In fact, the chances of that are almost 100%. You risk sacrificing the glory you could have had and living a very mediocre, uninspired life. On the other hand, if you lean towards your own business, you risk losing a probably mediocre life, in exchange for the chance to get everything you’ve ever wanted. While I’m using business as an example here, this applies equally to other areas of your life such as dating, or trying new things.
A lot of taking risks is being okay with the possibility of failure. You have to overcome the fear of losing everything you have now. If you think about it though, you started with nothing, and will end with nothing anyway. No matter what you do, you will have nothing eventually. It’s almost like the natural state of things. In some role playing games I’ve played, once you’ve gotten up to a very high level, you have the option of going back to level 1, but starting with better skills. Pretty much every person who plays games like that and gets to that level choose to be reborn with better skills. Well, this is like that. You try, and if you fail, you’re basically in the same situation as you were in when you were born, except much more experienced. It’s like starting a brand new life with a much better character. Isn’t that even more exciting than the first time around?
Another way to look at this is to look at the difference between you being alive and you being dead. If you’re not trying anything, then it would not be that different than if you were dead. You wouldn’t have made much of an impact, and no one would care whether or not you have lived. You see, the option to take a risk is basically a freedom of choice. When there’s no risk, there’s not as much freedom involved. For example, what’s the value of a choice between two haystacks that are exactly the same? Whenever you make a choice, there needs to be a risk of missing out on the other choice, that makes the choice itself worthwhile. So use your freedom and pick the life you want (I happen to want to be a billionaire, but if you want to lead a normal life, you can take a risk by just well, just being normal). Just know that you’re risking the other lives you could’ve lead.
No matter what the situation is though, if you don’t try, you have no chance of succeeding. Most of the time (like asking for a date), there is only a very small penalty for failure anyway. So why not give it a try?
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Risks shouldn’t be taken just for risks sake. You must analyze the risks versus the reward. You walk across the street with a small probability that someone will run you over because it is better for you to cross the street and take your chances, than for you to not cross. Only when the reward justifies the risk should you take it.
[...] Wong presents Taking Risks posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, “Are you afraid to launch your own [...]
You live one time only. Don’t spend it in safe, shallow water
Nice work there. I like the part about “It’s like starting a brand new life with a much better character. Isn’t that even more exciting than the first time around?”
Because yes…that is very true. lol
whats even better is, “Just know that you’re risking the other lives you could’ve lead.”
very nice article.
http://bharatclick.com
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by e_Entrepreneur, Rishu Anand. Rishu Anand said: RT @e_Entrepreneur: Nice little blog on taking risks…. it's worth the 2 minute read: http://www.whatithinkabout.com/taking-risks/ [...]
I’m sorry, but this is a bunch of rose-tinted hogwash. Life isn’t that shiny and perfect, not for everyone. Taking a risk by starting your own business, for example. Failing at that isn’t a ‘minor penalty.’ It’s bankruptcy and the chance that you and your family could end up HOMELESS. No dream is worth risking such a fate.
I think of risk more of someone urging you to go piss off a rhino. “Sure, he’ll most likely ram that horn up your ass and tear you to pieces,” they say, “but there’s a small chance he WON’T!”
…yeah, and there’s a 100% chance he won’t if I don’t fuck with him in the first place. >.>
[...] hence no way to overcome it. For example, say you want to start a business, but you are afraid of taking risks. Every time someone talks to you about starting a business, your immediate response is “Oh, [...]
[...] hence no way to overcome it. For example, say you want to start a business, but you are afraid of taking risks. Every time someone talks to you about starting a business, your immediate response is “Oh, [...]
I disagree with Dark Sociologist (to a point). Many people run the “risk” of overanalyzing the variables. But, I suppose it depends on the reward. There are many worthwhile rewards in which the odds are stacked against you and risks are high. If hadn’t taken risks for risks sake, I wouldn’t have become a 34 year old millionaire or gotten whatever level of fame I have now.
[...] hence no way to overcome it. For example, say you want to start a business, but you are afraid of taking risks. Every time someone talks to you about starting a business, your immediate response is “Oh, [...]
[...] http://www.whatithinkabout.com/taking-risks [...]
i like it alot