“High tolerance for risk.” It’s a qualification for hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. But you?
Most think entrepreneurship is a relatively risky endeavor. Steady pay checks, job descriptions, chains of command, succession plans, and – don’t forget – the unemployment safety net provides much more of a “sure thing.”
I’ve never thought of myself as being especially risk-tolerant. At the same time, I rarely perceive risk. I have always been a fan of worst case scenarios. If I can imagine the worst case scenario and imagine living through that, how risky could something really be? And really what can’t we live through?
But risk is really a matter of perspective. It is the awareness that, while potential is a constant, our actions have the capacity – and the will – to take us step by step, foothold by foothold, towards our of desires.
What I have learned through my own series of risky actions – buying a business, writing ebooks, transitioning brands, hosting a high end live event… – is that the outcome of any “risky” decision is rarely beyond the scope of my own actions. I will make the calls I need to make, write the emails I need to make, produce the content, close the sale, push through the barrier. It’s the risk – or its perception – that allows me to better understand the capacity of my own will and desire.
Of course, embracing risk on the basis of my own merit flirts with the potential for control issues. Yep, got those too. So I balance the knowing of my own actions with the unknowing of what opportunities disaster could bring. And yes, that is quite a happy way to live life.
I know that in disasters there is pain, heartbreak, financial hardship. But there is also revelation and revolution.
A revolution is a way of being that becomes a significantly better way of doing.
- Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions
The perception of risk – of the potential for true loss – fades a way when this balance is understood. The way up is yours to climb. The fall down presents its own glorious uncertainty.
Focus your awareness on the beauty of this balance.
Risk falls away.
You will endure.
***
Today, my friend and partner-in-crime at Reclaiming Wealth, Adam King, is releasing his new book. It’s called Entrepreneurship at Your Own Risk. It’s a personal narrative of risk-taking & shifting perception that is colored by interviews with 7 entrepreneurs, including Jonathan Fields, Mark Silver, and… me!
"wonderful blend of heart and soul
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The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster: http://t.co/8IIc7d02
RT @taragentile: The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster: http://t.co/60vZMCce
RT @taragentile: The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster: http://t.co/8IIc7d02
Well, Miss Gentile due to various different advice sources (blog kickstart lab, this wonderful blog and of course make your mark) this blog post has stirred something in me and I am off to my own blog to write a lengthy response.
Thank you for the amazing things you are doing in the world and for me!
RT @ronnadetrick: FAB-U-LOUS! The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster: http://t.co/myZaBFc6
The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster: http://t.co/kTvRo3Zi #entrepreneurship #coworking
How do you feel about risk? http://t.co/8IIc7d02
Risk: I’m about to take a big one. RT @taragentile: How do you feel about risk? http://t.co/WxP9sDXl
Another message I needed today RT @taragentile: Thoughts on risk & entrepreneurship http://t.co/ffR8jCse
Reading this article of “The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster” triggered a memory of such a time (in my life) decades ago. I had started a new assignment as an IT worker at a shipyard. My new project manager had a part-time gig teaching evening computer science courses at a satellite campus of a New England based university. At that time the university was looking for someone to teach the same computer language that I was using on the job. So asked for an evening to consider this new job offer and went to my idea of the worst-case scenario. My conclusion: the college would not ask me to teach again – something more than survivable. I ended up teaching for five years and loved every moment. In addition, I was able to impact the lives of my students and helped a number of them land full-time jobs in my beloved field of Information Technology!
-Joe Breunig
Reaching Towards His Unbounded Glory