The honest definition of risk is to expose yourself to danger, harm, or loss. Let’s take a look on how risk taking can help us achieve most of the things we think might be hard.
Our brains do some pretty good job of keeping us always safe when it comes to risk raking. That is part of the job. most of the time, that factory in our head fails us and we take some dumb risks.
We had our fair share of bad decisions growing up.
You can remember riding your bike around your neighborhood. There were some huge hills that were very tough to climb, but fun to always ride down.
You were riding down one, going as fast as possible as you can. When you reached the bottom of the hill you had to turn. You went right and at the same time hit a little patch of gravel.
Your back wheel would slid out from under you and you proceeded to sweep the ground with your body. When you got up, both arms and legs were bleeding seriously and you were in a ton of pain. You left your bike and started to walk home in tears.
That was a very dumb risk to take and from that point you took every hill and corner a little bit slower.
Over time you matured. The risks you took were more about your future than physical harm.
Your time on the bike, and dealing with many other risks while growing up, helped you think through the decisions in front of you. Risks are all about what could go wrong.
Said in another way, risks are about a lot of fear. The fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of making that mistake, fear of being rejected or fear of loss which prevents us from taking a risk.
But here is the thing I have come to realize. These fears are everything that could happen. They are sure not a foregone conclusion. Our minds are very creative and they can go very far when it comes to imagining downsides.
We found out that this problem gets worse with time. As time goes on and on, we always have more to lose and it keeps us from taking that particular risks.
You never want to put yourself in a position to lose it completely, but at the same time, if you do not take risks, you will not have much to gain.
We will sum it up with the words of “Jimmy Carter” “Go out on a limb. That is where the fruit is.”
Take risks but not bad ones. There are always good risk down there waiting for someone to pounce on and make it count. A lot of people that are successful in Nigeria and some part of the world takes one risk or the other. You can always look at Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO. He was in one of the best schools in the world, Harvard and left there as a drop out to pursue his dream of making Facebook a worldwide business. Look at where he is today? We aren’t saying it is good to leave school but some times it pays to take risks.
A lot of people here in Nigeria too that has done the same and are doing well in their chosen fields. Risk taking is very hard as it brings much fear and you get frightened almost every time even before you take the risk or when you have taken it. The first thing that you must do to control the fear is confidence. Have enough of it and you will see the risk would reward you. When you try to achieve something, you do everything legitimate to achieve it and not count your down fall.
Are you now ready to go for it? Don’t look back. Be good, be happy and sky is your limit. Thanks for reading.
Comments