Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

What distinguishes an Entrepreneur is the business world is his willingness to take risks. His gambles do not always pay off, but even when they don’t, he learns valuable lessons that guide him in the future. What Entrepreneurs are great at is taking smart risks, and having a strong sense of the likely outcomes of their decisions. Entrepreneurs quickly learn that what others perceive as risks are often not actually risks at all.

For instance, many people are afraid to ask their boss for a raise and view this as a risky undertaking. The truth, however, is that asking for a raise poses no risk to you whatsoever. The worst case scenario is that your boss will say no. Similarly, introducing yourself to a new person and attempting to make a connection poses no risk. It may feel scary, but you have nothing to lose.

Risk takers view truly risky endeavors, such as changing jobs or moving into a new field, with caution and optimism. The more often they attempt to succeed in risky activities, the sooner they learn what their likelihood of success is in these attempts. If someone has moved rather seamlessly into new career areas and succeeded in them, he learns that he will find a way to survive and thrive in any new field.

The best way to develop your risk-taking skills is to take risks, increasing in size and scope. You will soon get a feel for how you handle risk and what can result.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

When’s the last time you took a risk in your career, or even your personal life? Was the reward worth the risk? What did you learn? Were there any benefits you weren’t expecting?

If you would like to become more comfortable with risk, you can build up your confidence and experience by taking small gambles. If you harbor some trepidation about introducing yourself to new people at work, for instance, just go for it. What’s the worst that can happen? The best? Timid about negotiating for better pay? Ask. You just might get it. Baby steps can evolve into big leaps. The best way to improve at something is to practice regularly and keep stepping up into new challenges.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Business Week’s slide show on Famous Flops is an excellent reminder of why and how persistence pays. Fear of failure holds so many people back from taking a risk and shooting for what they want most of all. What you have to remember, though, is that in failures lie myriad lessons about success. It takes great courage to try and fail, to suffer defeat and still find the inner strength to stand up, dust off, and have another go at it. Superachievers are no more immune to failure than anyone else. In fact, most of them have failed time after time. What they never fail to do, though, is keep trying.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

There is an excellent post about risk taking and success up over at Achieve It.  Here are the highlights:

“So how do you break out of the comfort zone and start taking risks?  

1. Research - Read, take classes, seek counsel about what you want to do but are afraid to risk. 

2. Start small - To become a wise stock investor, you will probably start with CDs or mutual funds. To master water-skiing you can start out tubing to adjust to the speed and water. To master a network of 30 servers you must first master a network of 2 computers.   

3. Raise the stakes once you learn - When you learn how to pick a stock, apply your knowledge to stock diversification. When you’ve mastered basic skiing, take a risk by jumping the wake. When you’ve mastered your network, you can then risk offering new and better services to your clients.  

Being one of the few who is willing to risk can lead to greatness. A boxer must risk a hit to score a knockout. An actor must risk an audition to start a career in show business. And to reach the greatness you seek will require risks as well. Start out slow, gain the experience…but then take the risk.”

 Like it or not risk is necessary for success.

 

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