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Risk Taking - Is It Wise?

Guest post by: Iris Barrow

Article Overview: When is the right time to take a risk? How can I best evaluate when a risk is worth taking? Iris Barrow provides practical tips and suggestions on how to work out whether taking a risk is sensible or foolhardy.

Risk Taking - Is It Wise?

Has an exciting but rather scary opportunity come your way? Have you got a business idea that you think has real potential but you're nervous about committing yourself? Highly motivated people know when to take calculated risks. Other people who sit on the sidelines, play it safe and wait for ‘the breaks' or good fortune to come their way, may still be waiting as the high achievers leave them far behind. At times we have to have the courage to blaze a trail, to venture forth into what is new and untried, to go into unknown territory.

Do your homework first

This means doing the necessary homework beforehand to make sure that it is the right time to take a particular risk. It would be foolhardy to rush into anything before we had thoroughly investigated it and asked the opinion of those who had the experience to help us. Most people, if approached with a positive and open attitude, will be willing to share their experience and warn us of the pitfalls.

Be prepared to pay for expert advice if the situation warrants it. It may save you lots of time, money and energy in the long run.

Write it out and mind-map

Once the research has been completed, put pen to paper or sit at the computer and write down everything to do with the plan. Writing things down helps us to think creatively and trigger our subconscious to come up with ideas and solutions. There is also a lot to be said for allowing some time to elapse before taking action so that things can ‘gel'.

When creating a written plan on a proposed project, write out pros and cons so that the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed venture can be clearly seen. It's great to be an innovator, but it's even more important to be a logically thinking innovator, who faces reality and is aware of potential pitfalls.

It is not a bad idea to do a bit of simple mind-mapping as well. This involves writing down all the possible options of the proposed project under separate headings and then tracing each one through, using your imagination, to its natural conclusion. In charting a possible course, you can get a far more in-depth picture of the likely results of particular actions as well as a clearer view of the variety of choices available. This simplified form of mind mapping is a very effective and motivating exercise when you are considering a new venture.

Decision-making time

After researching your new venture thoroughly, you have now reached the point of making a final decision on whether or not to proceed. Obviously you are not going to take unwise risks, and if you have serious doubts about the project when you reach this stage, then it may be wise not to pursue it. Alternatively, it may not be that your idea is a bad one, but rather that the timing is wrong, and this needs serious consideration.

Are your fears holding you back? If all your research indicates that your project will succeed but you find yourself hesitating to make the final decision, ask yourself one more question: "What is holding me back?"

Write down your answers and if necessary go through the whole process of weighing up the pros and cons again. You may need to seek extra advice to discuss doubts with people whose judgment you trust. Remember that while this may involve paying experts for their advice, it is usually money well spent.

If, on the other hand, you are hesitating because you are nervous about extending yourself to meet the challenges your change of direction, new venture or project might demand, examine your fears. Again, writing them out can be very helpful and you may be surprised at what surfaces, such as deep-seated insecurities rising from childhood or past experiences. Perhaps you had your confidence knocked as a child because you were made to feel insecure for various reasons. Is this now holding you back? Take a serious look at your feelings of insecurity because they may well be the block to your long-term success.

We can hesitate all our lives, missing opportunity after opportunity if we limit ourselves by unwarranted fears and feelings of insecurity. There is a right moment in everyone's life to take their courage in both hands and venture forth to meet new challenges. This could well be your right moment.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes

A willingness to learn from making mistakes results in a sharp, clearly defined learning curve. Many successful people will testify to the fact that they have made mistakes and learned from them by looking at them with an analytical eye. The secret is to then put the mistake behind you, move on and not repeat it.

Negative thinkers, after making a mistake, often dwell on their ‘failure' and this attitude shakes their confidence and reduces their self-esteem.

When positive thinkers make mistakes they get up and dust themselves off, look around and find a better project to set their sights on. Just before moving off, they take a quick glance back over their shoulder, look at what tripped them up, and make a mental note not to repeat the same mistake.

It is consoling to note that many highly successful people who are recognised achievers in their field regard mistake-making as a training ground for their success. As one top Australian business executive said to me, "I would never have learnt the skills I have today had I not made a fair number of mistakes along the way. Each mistake fine-tuned my ability to make good decisions and taught me to develop the skills I needed to reach the top in business. The fact that I kept on trying, despite my mistakes, kept my motivation at a high level."

Those people who are unwilling to make mistakes through fear or other reasons, are missing out on valuable learning. A willingness to make mistakes is just as important as having a willingness to take calculated risks.

Certainly it takes courage and a reasonable amount of confidence to allow oneself not to be flattened by a mistake, especially if it's a serious one. However, each time we extract what we can learn from the mistake and move on, we are a little bit surer, a little bit wiser and a whole a lot stronger. Mistakes can only work against us if we allow them to - they should not be viewed as disasters that shake our faith in our ability and knock our confidence. View them instead as valuable learning experiences.

There is a lot of truth in the old saying: "Better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all", leading to the next stage: "Better still to have tried, failed, learnt from the failure, and as a result moved on steadily to overcome and succeed."

This article was adapted from Iris Barrow's book, You Can Do It.

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Article Tags: judgment, map, mind, mindmap, mistake, negative thinker, pitfall, positive thinker, research, risk, risk taking, risks



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