Take risks: the odds are better than you think

By Lionel Wijesiri

On Vesak day, I met a 40-year old man whom I knew years ago as an enterprising young Management Trainee of a blue-chip company. After working over 15 years in the corporate sector, rising up the ladder to senior executive level, he decided to start his own business.

He took his skills and experience of being a Public Relations specialist and translated them into a viable business for himself. Working with his wife, he turned part of his home into an office and started an enterprise handling private and public events organising.

Nervous about launching out on his own, he knew this was the biggest risk he had ever taken and, for couple of weeks, worried about where the income and clients would come from.

He realised that there was something at stake. He stood to lose money and his reputation, which are also the very same things he stood to gain. But with firm determination, he went ahead with his plans. Now, after being in business for three years, he has already landed multiple contracts. After taking the risk of quitting his job and launching his own firm, he’s much happier and experiencing life on a new level.

This little story reveals a simple fact in life. You cannot be a winner unless you are willing to face defeat. For that matter, you cannot even stand without risking a fall. Every sky diver, underwater diver or racing car driver knows that the first walk to the edge is scary, but they have to go there if they want to perform.

Risk, then is not just part of life. It is life. The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place. It is the high-anxiety zone, but it is also where you discover who you are.

Two types

But, there is a difference between calculated risk and just plain stupid risk. You could never take a risk in which you could lose more than you could win. Those are calculated risks. Stupid risks are just that, too crazy to contemplate. Calculated risk, however, is taking a chance that looks crazy than it really is because you have prepared yourself, you have reduced the risk as much as possible and you have backup plan if things go wrong.

Even in the business world as in life, it is generally conceded that you cannot avoid risk entirely. But you can manage or minimise it by measuring the depth of the muck before you wade in.

Risk

Now, think of yourself. Are you a person who likes to play too safe in any challenge? Are you relaxed to be in the comfort zone and just hoping to have a mistake-free, loss-free and stress-free life? It may sound like the good life, but it is actually the “no-life” way to go.

All of us have a need, as human beings, to want to stick to the familiar and predictable. We like things we can control and know well. But, as Helen Keller, who lost both her sight and hearing in childhood but became a renowned activist and author, said security is mostly a superstition. She said that there is no such thing as a secure life. “It does not exist in nature… Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” She knew better than us.

Visualise this scenario! You’re faced with a choice that involves risk. Perhaps you want to change your career, move to a different place, quit your job and start a business, begin a new relationship, go out of country for a new job. What would you do? You have three choices. Ignore, compromise or take the risk and go ahead.

Risk is, by nature, scary. It’s uncertain and unpredictable. You’re heading off into unchartered territory. You may lose your life savings. You risk criticism and humiliation, or having to pick up the pieces and start all over again. You’re giving up what you know for what might be. The rewards can be great, but so can the cost.

You may ask yourself, “Why would I take a risk?”A sensible question. I can think of a number of reasons. Risk gives you an opportunity to open to your talents, interests, abilities and dreams. Risk teaches you to set clear goals and follow through.

Risk allows you to feel powerful and proactive, making things happen rather than waiting for them to happen to you. Risk opens you to new ideas, skills, opportunities and experiences. Risk allows you to grow and discover new things about yourself and the world, to develop your strengths and talents. Those are lot of plus points you never thought of.

Elements

When weighing up whether to take an action that could leave us vulnerable to failing or some other form or loss, most of us have an innate tendency to misjudge four core elements in assessing risk.

1. We over-estimate the probability of something going wrong. We tend to focus more on what might go wrong - what we might lose or sacrifice - than what might go right. Yet the reality is that the risk of something not working out is often not near as high as we estimate and the odds of it working out well, are often far better.

2. We exaggerate the consequences of what might happen if it does go wrong. We come up with a dramatic worst-case scenario images in our minds-eye. Rather than assume that we would act quickly to mitigate a situation if things started going off track, we imagine everything spiralling shockingly out of control while we passively stand by.

3. We under-estimate our ability to handle the consequences of risk. Too often we let our misgivings about whether we have what it takes to succeed get the better of us. The result is that we often avoid taking on new challenges (or proactively pursuing new opportunities) because we don’t trust sufficiently in our ability to rise to the challenges they involve.

4. We discount the cost of inaction, and stick with the existing state of affairs. We tell ourselves “The present situation is not that bad,” and delude ourselves, with the hope that our circumstances will somehow just get better over time and things will just ‘sort themselves out.’ We come up with excuses for why sticking with the status quo is a feasible option; why playing safe and not putting ourselves at risk of failing or looking foolish is sensible.

You cannot control everything that happens to you or around you. So, focus on what you can control, access every possibility you can think and then make the decision. Sometimes your heart and your gut will tell you to take a chance even when the odds of success look bad on paper. You may fail. You may win. But I doubt you will ever look back with regret that you tried.