Our society rewards risk-takers. We don’t mean the monster truck jumping kind, or the swim with sharks kind, although these days it seems like if you’re willing to do stupid stuff, someone’s willing to give you a Discovery channel show about it. The risk-takers we’re talking about are the people who speak truth to power, people who dare to dream big when others can only focus on problems, and the people who go out of their way to be exceedingly unique in a world filled with more and more noise.
Risk-taking is about assessing the current landscape and stepping out a little further than everyone else is willing to go. It takes guts, doesn’t feel comfortable, and a lot of times it’s unclear what, exactly, the reward will be. We’d all do nearly anything for $1,000,000; the problem is that you don’t know which risks get you $1,000,000 until you’ve taken them all and the rewards start coming in. For most of us, without a guarantee we’re not willing to take risks, and that’s what separates the extraordinary from the average.
Great leaders and great presenters understand that risk-taking has to be a pattern of behavior, not the human equivalent of dogs jumping through flaming hoops for beef jerky. Risk-taking should be synonymous with ambition; it’s not about how much money or danger is on the line, and in fact these aren’t required to take risks or receive rewards from them. The sort of risk we’re talking about is the risk of selling out to your own message 100%. It’s the risk of standing in front of a group of people and saying in no uncertain terms, “Yes, I’m the expert on this,” and then having to live up to that standard. It’s about writing big figurative checks and having to be able to cash them.
The world is for the bold, the risk-takers. There’s no room for On-the-Other-Hand Bettys and 50/50 Johns; we want decision-makers who aren’t afraid of accountability, responsibility, and doing what it takes to keep a promise. A lot of us avoid risk precisely because we’re not 100% sure that we could live up to the standard we’d set, and quite frankly that’s a terrible way to live.
Better to be like Babe Ruth, who had the confidence and conviction to risk untold embarrassment and mockery had he struck out after calling a home run. Sure, taking risks often requires more effort on our part, but we only live once and few of us want to reflect on our lives and say, “I didn’t accomplish much, but boy was it a safe ride.”
Question: How could you invite a little risk and responsibility into your life? What do you think would happen if you did?
