Invest Risk not Self-Protection

Risk is not the opposite of self-protection. Risk is more precisely defined economically and socially as the expectation of reward. Work is required if you are to expect a reward. When I say to you, “Higher risk. Higher reward,” I am challenging you to work with purpose and expectation, not just blindly trusting in something you know nothing about. But, risk is related to self-protection, because your resistance to my challenge is based in your inability to see a reward resulting from your work. You believe it is better to be safe and unfulfilled rather than to risk. Let me be the first to enlighten you: Your inability to see a reward resulting from your work is an indication that you need more information. Investigate work that produces rewards. You set the limit and the definition of your success.

Risk begins with you. I am not asking you to push beyond what you can handle. I am asking you to push beyond what is comfortable and safe for you. Not to trust blindly, but to research the opportunities and create a plan of action. The right risk will be natural to you. It is your gift. Feed it with more information. Learn about it.
Know the odds. Inform yourself about the markets that you may explore. If you are selling goods, you need ready buyers. If you are providing a service, you have to be filling a felt need. You must know what your competition is doing. You must also know what value you add. You may also consider what complementary products or services you may offer.

Mind the company you keep. Know what messages you are receiving from your peers, potential customers, family, and other stakeholders. Judge the value of the influences by whether or not they challenge you to be better. It does not matter how they present challenges, it only matters that you are better because of the challenge. Know that often, others exaggerate the difficulty of a task in order to build their own ego. Easy task does not necessarily mean that the task is not a risk.

Know the goals you have in mind. Define success for you. Rarely is success as simple as “being comfortable,” but just as rare is success as grandiose as selling 100,000 units. You often ask yourself, “What do I need to be comfortable?” Comfort most likely has more to do with relationship than the risk we are discussing. Modest material goals typically include a house, a car, loans paid, money in the bank. Success for you then, is the figure it takes to secure those materials. Risk is expecting those materials to result from your work. Investment is to leverage those materials—that comfort—to build sustainable success.