Do any of these sound familiar? “Don’t take the risk.” “It’s too risky.” “You have too much to risk.” Through our childhood years, the word risk is equated almost always to danger. Yet when we get older the mantra changes to “No risk, no reward.” Why is that?
I think when we are young, we don’t know any better. We are not yet aware of the things that can hurt us. Unfortunately, for many of us, that mindset never changes. We grow into our adult years still believing that “risk” is just another four letter word we need to avoid.
Warren Buffet said; “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” So does that mean that the only reason that we don’t take risks is because we don’t know what we’re doing?
I think I follow Buffet’s wisdom on this. If we know exactly what we are doing, we don’t eliminate the risk, but we certainly reduce it. So how about a few more phrases … “calculated risk”; “controlled risk” or “limited risk.”
OK, I’m already tired of the word. No more risk!
Oh, I forgot – No risk, no reward!
There has been much written lately about failure and how it is really a part of every success story in one way or another. John Maxwell’s next book, “Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn” comes out next month and it is all about learning from our failures. I listened to this months Success Magazine CD and three interviews about – you guessed it – failure. Everyone’s writing about failure.
If you are familiar with the Success CD’s, you know that Hardy does a short wrap up at the end of each issue. He made a comment that took the dim light in my head from about 10 watts to 100 watts with this statement; “The best way to massive success is through massive failure.” Ok, full transparency here – it was more like slowly turning up the dimmer switch.
I was so excited that all I had to do to succeed was fail, that I almost missed the real meaning here. If I fail enough times and learn from them, eventually I will succeed.
One of the things I am currently working on is building my client base. So I thought some more about Hardy’s comments and decided that I have a new goal. I am going to fail 100 times by the end of the year in getting a new client. (If you are reading this and get a phone call from me in the next few months, don’t feel like you have to be one of the 100.)
Here’s the real “aha” in all of this. I didn’t get it at the time, but the following day I was on a call with my coach and after explaining this great discovery, she made this observation; “Looking for No’s takes the fear out of rejection.” BOOM!
So what does this mean? It means that I am crystal clear on my objective – “to receive a no.” The risk has been reduced (even if it’s only in my own mind) about failing to get a yes. Therefore, the limiting beliefs that may have held me back in the past, waiting for that “perfect client” or worse yet, “waiting for that person to call me” are gone.
I want a “NO.” Remember what Hardy said – Massive Success comes through Massive Failure. My favorite President, Theodore Roosevelt, said; “It is impossible to win the great prizes in life without running risks.” He was right. It not’s going to come easy and nobody is going to do it for you.
So is there a risk with every reward? Probably not every one. But this I believe – the big rewards come with some kind of risk. Today’s question: “How much are you willing to risk?”
It’s bonus Friday, so you get a question and a challenge, so here it is. There is a risk you have not been willing to take. You know what it is. Don’t be afraid of taking the risk. Educate yourself on what it is you want to do and go for it. If you get your “no”, you can try again.
Now don’t tell anyone that I wrote this last paragraph because this post is about risk and being good with receiving a “NO.” OK – I am whispering now “What if they say yes!”
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Barry Smith 9/13/13 photo by author © Building What Matters 2013
