Then turn your mind to the veritable armies of
individuals, who remain in positions at work which they find
dull and unrewarding. Why do they stay?- simply because
they fear they would not be able to "cope with" the position
which they would truly love to "tackle." The irony is, of course,
if these people would simply put themselves "out on a limb"-by
going after that better job or, that dream home, or whatever
else it is they truly desire-they would then demand a
commensurately better performance from themselves. As a
result, they would soon discover that the risk they had taken
was actually paying big dividends in all aspects of their life.
The Young Millionaires
Several years ago, I read an excellent book on the subject
of risk-taking. It was entitled The Young Millionaires, and it
contained the true-life stories of eighteen individuals, each of
whom had earned in excess of one million dollars. In fact,
some of these people had actually earned many millions of
dollars, over and above the one million dollar mark, during the
course of their highly successful careers. Throughout the
book, the author made many interesting observations about
the "law of financial success," but the most important one was
the one which he kept coming back to: namely, although these
individuals came from a variety of different backgrounds and
although each had earned their money in a different way, they
all shared one thing in common.
"What was that one thing?" you ask. Simply put, it was
this-even though everything they owned was riding on the
outcome of virtually every major business decision which they
made, none of them considered themselves to be taking
"risks." The reason they didn't, he went on to explain, was
because they were living their lives "as though it were
impossible to fail!" (Note, however, that in the eyes of most
people, there would be no question that these individuals were
taking tremendous risks-and on an almost daily basis).
Fighter-Pilot Study
In a similar vein, research done many years ago which
investigated the lives of fighter pilots in World War II,
determined conclusively that, contrary to what you might
think, many of the pilots who "played it safe" during the war,
were among the first to be killed in combat. By way of
contrast, the study also found that, practically without
exception, not only were the surviving aces individuals who
refused to "play it safe," but they were the greatest risk-takers
throughout the war. Indeed, as one has the opportunity to
observe the performance of individuals from all walks of life, it
soon becomes evident that whoever "plays it safe" in life, dies,
and dies relatively young. For although many of these
individuals remain "clinically" alive for numerous years, when
their hearts finally cease beating it is a mere formality,
because the truth is, they have never really lived!
By now you have probably said to yourself, "All of this
sounds eminently reasonable, but why should it be,?" or "Why
are so many of us destined to go through our entire lives in
this condition of self-imposed misery, simply because we are
unable, or unwilling, to take meaningful risks?" Well, it seems
to me if we will only cast our minds back to the formative
years of our own lives, we will soon recognize where this
reluctance to engage in risk-taking behavior has its source.
Once we have arrived at that point, I believe we will have come
a long way in our attempt to combat, and ultimately
neutralize, this insidious problem. I exhort you to pay very
strict attention to the information which will now be set-out
before you.
When you were a young child-in fact, even as far back as
the time when you were an infant-your parents desperately
wanted to see you succeed. As a consequence of this wish,
they were terrified by the prospect you might somehow fall
short of their expectations of you. This was perfectly natural,
in light of the fact they loved you very dearly. Unfortunately,
however, it motivated them to attempt to shelter you from
every potential harm which might come up in your life. For
example, when you first started to walk, they were right by
your side and as soon as you even looked like you were going
to stumble, they quickly grabbed onto you, so you would not
fall and hurt yourself.
Similarly, when you engaged in your first fist fight with
"the little terror next door," your parents were there to soothe
the bruised feelings. They probably tried to console you by
saying "You were right dear, and the other wrong - the other
child was a bully." Next, they probably said something like, "In
the future, dear, be very careful and try to stay away from kids
like that." Moreover, if your upbringing was typical of that of
most of us, your first bicycle probably brought with it repeated
warnings such as: "be careful," "don't fall," "watch out," and so
on. In this manner, you were slowly but surely "programmed"
to make every move in your life with a brilliant caution light
burning brightly on the screen of your impressionable young
mind.
You must gain the awareness, therefore, that regardless
of what anyone may have told you to the contrary, none of us
was ever "born" with a fear of taking risks. As I have clearly
indicated above, the fear of taking risks is something which we
learned, only after we entered this wonderful world of ours. In
fact, contrary to what many people have mistakenly been led
to believe, the human being-if left to his or her own devices-is
a born risk-taker who is "naturally" programmed to follow the
path which will eventually lead to greatness in his or her own
life.
But, be that as it may, before you embark on this exciting
path of risk-taking, you should remember to never lose sight of
the fact that becoming a risk-taker does not mean becoming
an irresponsible individual. If you really think it through, you
will realize these two concepts are mutually exclusive. For
becoming a risk-taker means to act courageously, and to act
courageously is considerably different from acting foolishly
(which is how a person acts when he or she behaves in an
irresponsible manner). You might encounter a few situations
where the line separating these two concepts becomes
extremely narrow. Nevertheless, it is absolutely essential you
never cross over that line, inadvertently, or otherwise! Another
thing which you must be aware of, is that risk-taking is always
a relative term. In other words, behavior which represents a
risk to one person may not necessarily represent a risk to
another person. Moreover, if the same behavior were carried
out by a third party, one might even be tempted to deem it
irresponsible conduct. It is clear, therefore, that one must be
able to distinguish among these different concepts with a
significant degree of accuracy. In order to achieve this, it
becomes necessary to go back to one of the basic principles
involved in the process of self-development.
You must be able to see yourself, with your inner eye,
already in possession of the good you desire.
Risk-Taking vs. Irresponsibility
People who are irresponsible very rarely accomplish
anything of importance and quite often they invite real harm
to themselves. They might occasionally become involved in
some activities which are successful, but these results occur
so infrequently, and they are so overshadowed by negative
results that they are hardly even worth mentioning.
Consider, for example, the individual who dives off a high
cliff and into a shallow body of water, simply because he has
been "dared" to do so by a group of his peers. Although the
person in question is afraid to dive, for some strange reason he
is even more afraid of what the others might say to him, or
even think about him, if he chose not to dive. Clearly, the
person's fear of diving is perfectly reasonable, in view of the
fact he has had absolutely no training as a diver. Furthermore,
as a result of his lack of training, when he does contemplate
what might happen if he did dive, he visualizes himself being
very seriously injured. Obviously, for an individual such as
this to go ahead and dive, would be extremely foolish-to say
the least-and the person's actions would have to be considered
irresponsible by anyone's standards.
On the other hand, however, if this same person trained
to become a professional diver and if he were skilled at taking
all of the various factors into consideration (i.e. if he were able
to visualize himself successfully going through all of the
necessary motions such as swimming to shore, stepping back
on land unharmed, etc.), then it would be a totally different
situation. For although the person would still be taking a
definite risk, no one could accuse him of acting in an
irresponsible manner.
Consider for a moment, the "stunt people" who work in
the movie industry. These individuals are constantly
performing dangerous acts. In fact, that is precisely what they
get paid for. But do not be deceived! For the men and women
who perform these stunts are not amateurs by any means.
They are all competent professionals, highly skilled in the
performance of their dangerous trade. They always check and
then double check every calculation, before they make even
the simplest move. As a result of these precautions, they are
very rarely ever injured. No, there cannot be any question
about it-stunt people are "Risk-Takers" to be sure, but they
are very rarely irresponsible individuals!
Investments
Now, turn your attention to the person who invests his or
her hard-earned savings in a venture about which he or she
knows practically nothing. Perhaps someone, possibly a
relative whom the person may have held in high esteem,
suggested this investment was a great idea and the investors
stood to earn an extraordinarily high rate of return on it.
Assume, moreover, that despite the person's very grave
misgivings about going into the venture at all, he is also being
strongly motivated by greed, to seek the highest possible rate
of return which can be earned on the money invested. Finally,
suppose that the tremendous fear of loss notwithstanding, the
person decides to go ahead and makes the investment anyway.
What happens next?
After the investment has been made, most of the person's
waking hours will probably be spent:
1. worrying about the investment, and
2. visualizing himself reduced to a
state of abject poverty.
It is abundantly clear, therefore, that this sort of behavior
must be deemed the polar opposite of financial responsibility
and the person involved must be considered imprudent and
irresponsible, rather than a "bona fide" risk-taker. The usual
outcome in a situation such as this is predictable, if not
pleasing. The individual in question loses the money, not to
mention the former friendship of the individual who originally
suggested the investment. (The reason is that foolish,
irresponsible people seldom blame themselves for making
such errors.)
On the other hand however, if that person listened
carefully to the suggestion of his friend or relative and then
studied the situation for himself, he could have formed an
opinion which was based on sound knowledge rather than
hearsay, and which was motivated by genuine interest rather
than simple greed. At that point, the individual could have
gone ahead and invested a sum of money which would not
have placed his total financial situation in jeopardy. Then, as
he gathered more information based on actual experience, he
could have gradually increased his investment if such action
appeared to be in his best interest.
Clearly, if our hypothetical individual followed this
second course of action, he would still certainly be taking a
risk. However, one could not justifiably say he was behaving in
the manner of a fool or an irresponsible person. Moreover,
even in the eventuality that this person made a bad
"judgement call," and lost his money, that would have been all
he had lost. For he would still have his friendship and he
would still have his own self-respect, because he would realize
he had been guilty of nothing more than an error in
judgement. An added benefit of this second approach is that
the individual would not automatically reject future
investment possibilities, should they arise.
I am sure you are getting my message "loud and clear":
risk-takers are knowledgeable people who study situations
carefully, have confidence in their own abilities and have a
very healthy self-image. Put more succinctly, we can say risk-
takers, unlike irresponsible people, are "nobody's fool."
Business Failures
Consider this - if one were to examine the statistics
regarding the number of business failures each year, without
closely studying each situation separately, one could very
easily conclude that going into business for oneself is an
"irresponsible act." However, that is just not the case! The
truth of the matter is, many of the people who have gone into
bankruptcy, should never have gone into business for
themselves in the first place, either because they weren't
properly prepared for such an undertaking or because they
simply didn't know what they were doing. They lacked the
skill, the knowledge, or the proper support to get their
business "off the ground." Bear in mind that although it takes
most new companies at least three years before they are
