The Right Side of Risk
Time sure does fly. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been over ten years since my first book, Right Risk, was published. At the time, risk-taking was very much on my mind. I was restless and overly content in a six-figure job with Accenture, one of the world’s largest management consulting companies. Though I had learned a lot as an executive in Accenture’s change management practice, I felt like my spirit had outgrown the job. Much of the last chapter of Right Risk chronicles my decision to take a giant leap from the company in order to strike out on my own.
The truth is, had I stayed safely nestled in my comfortable job, my life would have started to shrink. Safety can start to become dangerous over time. To reinvigorate my passion for work, making the hugely risky move of starting my own company made sense. Besides, what better way to live my book’s message than to take a risk that was “right” for me.
Risk-taking is as essential to life as breathing. It is the oxygen of innovation, entrepreneurialism, leadership, wealth creation, and high adventure. Remove risk and there is no personal growth, career advancement, or spiritual development (faith, after all, is a big risk). Personally and collectively, all progress, advancement, and momentum depend on risk. Like air, it is both nourishing and life sustaining. The most fulfilling times in your life—the times you felt most alive—have undoubtedly been when you surprised yourself by doing something you never imagined you could, something hard, something scary.
Though most of us have enjoyed the accompanying rewards of an intelligently taken risk, most of us have crashed-’n-burned under an ill-considered one as well. Consequently, we spend a lot of time trying to avoid risk by “playing it safe.” Chances are, anytime you have passed up a big opportunity, stayed in an unsatisfying situation, or failed to stick up for yourself, avoiding risk had a lot to do with your behavior.
In a world that continually reminds us about how unsafe it is, it is difficult to maintain a “play it safe” approach. From terrorist threats, to stock market gyrations, to political knife-fights, we are buffeted by the reckless risks of others. In an increasingly compressed and frenetic world, we are like billiard balls being smacked around in somebody else’s poolhall hustle.
So what constitutes a right risk? It’s a risk that is congruent with your deepest held values. It’s a risk that can, potentially, help close the gap between who you are and who you aim to be. And most of all, it’s a risk that is true for you.
In the next blog post, I’ll share five criteria with which to judge whether a risk is right for you. Until then, it might be helpful for you to answer this question: when was the last time you did something for the first time?
Bill Treasurer is the author of Leaders Open Doors, which focuses on how leaders create growth through opportunity. Bill is also the author of Courage Goes to Work, an international bestselling book that introduces the concept of courage-building. He is also the author of Courageous Leadership: A Program for Using Courage to Transform the Workplace, an off-the-shelf training toolkit that organizations can use to build workplace courage. Bill’s first book, Right Risk, draws on his experiences as a professional high diver. Bill has led courage-building workshops for, among others, NASA, Accenture, CNN, PNC Bank, SPANX, Hugo Boss, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more, contact info@giantleapconsulting.com.
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