Is it riskier to take risks or to avoid taking risks? Which is costlier? Which is more rewarding? In almost every sphere of life these days – both professionally and personally – individuals and businesses are conducting risk assessments of every single decision, action or idea. It has become more like a norm in our left thinking dominated world which is understandable. However, what is worrying is what we do after the risk assessments.
The primary purpose of your risk assessment is to forecast what you should be aware of in executing a decision or taking an action; what the downsides are; and where the potential pitfalls might be. The issue is, many people and businesses freeze after this exercise and either abandon an already made decision or stay in a perpetual state of contemplation and inertia. They focus on demanding more certainty instead of trusting their mitigated plans. As a result, a lot of great ideas have been shelved, breakthrough decisions never actioned and bold timely actions delayed because people froze or changed their mind after becoming aware of the risks. It is good to asks questions and search for more certainty; after all, who wouldn’t want to be sure? By nature, I toss a lot of questions around and try hard to figure out what can go wrong. Well I have discovered that, the more questions you ask, the less answers you find. I have also learnt that, it is ok not to have answers now to every question. After all, I can ask all the questions I can imagine about how tomorrow will turn out but I will only get my answers when tomorrow actually comes. Does not knowing fully about tomorrow give me sleepless night? No! Therefore, I am on a journey of developing the attitude of focussing and figuring what can go right most of the time than what can go wrong every time because our fears have a funny way of coming to pass and so are our hopes.
It is true that identified risks are red flags and could also mean stop. And indeed, it is foolhardy to pursue a venture/adventure when everything points to danger and failure. My point is, these should be exceptions not norms. The other truth is, there is nothing extraordinary that ever happened that had ordinary risks. We frown on taking risks, even known risks, but every generation has been ruled and dominated by risk takers in every sphere of life – politics, sports, fashion, academia, inventions, health, business, etc. There are countless heroic stories of people who took risks and succeeded and much less stories of those who took risks and failed. And even more admirable stories of those who took risks, failed once, failed a thousand times and then succeeded afterwards.
In life, and in business, if you want to do extraordinary things or leave competition in your trail, you will fail some of the times or most times. And you don’t need to succeed every time or most of the times to be successful. Ordinary people, succeed many times in ordinary things every day yet are not admitted into any hall of fame or pointed to as successful people. Extraordinary people and businesses fail many times and succeed only once in bold daring initiatives and the tabloids and commentators run out of synonyms for describing their success. Suddenly, all their previous failures are forgotten. It is as though they never failed. It is as though they had no fears and faced no risks. But there is a very small difference between ordinary people and extraordinary people – it is the word “extra.” Those who do or go extra are those people and businesses who push through obstacles, who dare to be different, who see risks yet dare to confront and mitigate them.
Have you cared to ponder what God’s project “Die to save man” risk assessment might have looked like? How everything or too many things could have gone wrong? And what would have happened if the outcome of that risk assessment had stopped Him from executing the plan? Thank God that he is such an unrepentant risk taker.
Be good at risk assessments but be better at taking risks. It is cheaper than avoiding risks.
