Are You a Risk Taker?

 Some people get high on risk:  They jump out of airplanes in parachutes, they climb mountains, they train to become military commandos.

 Some people are risk aversive:  They don’t speak in public, they don’t introduce themselves to people they’d like to know, they don’t work for start-up companies.

 Some people are a blend of these two profiles:  They take calculated risks in business, they seek to climb mountains in a safe manner, and they set up meetings with people they like to get to know.

 We are complicated beings, and none of us are alike -- or even think alike.  There is just one problem:  Taking risks can bring tremendous rewards.  Not taking risks can bring lifelong regrets.

 Courage is, by definition, the ability to conquer one’s fears.  Faced with high-risk situations, it is courage that will cause us to move into that risk-filled event; it is judgment and experience that may decide the outcome of that decision.

 What took most courage?  Was it  inviting that very attractive person to dinner?  Or was it climbing the Matterhorn?  Or was it risking all your savings on what seemed to be a “sure thing,”  but not really?  And then losing it all?

 Looking back, I never regret doing things that required courage when they presented themselves.  Even when failing, I felt, as someone said, “The thrill of defeat,” even as I felt “the agony of success” when I didn’t.

 I always regretted not acting on those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities when my heart was pounding, beads of sweat emerging on my forehead, and I knew I was facing a transformative and life-changing decision.

Like the time when I was offered a prestigious chair at a renowned university, but chose to stay in Minnesota.  I have always wondered about what would have happened had I accepted that offer.

But I never regretted scaling an Alpine peak in ropes and crampons — a death-defying exposure on either side of the ridge — my boots filling with blood from sores on both feet.    Later that afternoon, we gathered at a Swiss teahouse.  Nearby was a cemetery for Swiss mountain guides who were certified as “Bergführer”, the most respected title in the Alps.    In a corner of the cemetery were the graves of all those guides who had died on the mountain we had just climbed.  The sight of those graves was a shock to me, but it made me feel wonderfully alive, and so very grateful for the experience.

 I know my experiences have changed me, and particularly in the way I look at risk taking.  I find myself encouraging students – and colleagues – to be more courageous about what they want to achieve.  I point out to CEOs that the riskiest choice is almost always to do nothing when business survival is threatened.  Children and youth are often better at survival than adults because they don’t have the mindset of the adult that simply “knows” that some things are impossible.  A year ago, a young man cut off his own arm and walked to safety when he had been trapped under a boulder.

 Yet, our society keeps getting riskier.  Employers shift pensions from defined benefit to defined contribution.  Health care plans shift more and more risk on to the individual, away from companies, and from insurers.   Social Security reform is aiming to shift part of the financial benefits from guaranteed payments to risk-exposed payments.  Our jobs are becoming riskier – they may be “right-sized,” or outsourced, or simply done away with as markets and tastes change.

So, risks are being forced on us, and many of them are unwelcome.  How do we best cope with it all?

 By DOING something!  By CREATING the job you’ll so much like to have!   By making sure that you do what you love to do, and that you seek and find the technology  that will make you the very best at what you do; by looking at life as an unfolding and exciting mystery, where you are a key player AND director; and where you choose to play all the parts that resonate with your unique and wondrous gifts.