Should you or shouldn’t you? Throughout our lives and careers we are often faced with that question, and all too often the paralysis of caution prevails.
Throughout all my business transactions and reading, I’ve rarely encountered anyone who has ever said they took “too many” chances. Quite the contrary, they often say if they had it to do over again, they would have taken more risks.
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As Dale Carnegie put it, “Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man (or woman) who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The ‘sure thing’ boat never gets far from shore.”
Movie star and singer Kris Kristofferson said, “I’d rather be sorry for something I’ve done, than for something that I didn’t do.”
We can’t avoid risk, so we all must do a better job deciding which risks to take and how we manage the consequences. Life is risky business, but risk is not always bad. Quite the contrary, risk is essential to growth and success for individuals and organizations.
Listen to any business leader and they’ll tell you what I’ve said on many occasions, “Sometimes it’s risky not to take a risk.”
My idol Peter Drucker, the recently deceased management consultant and author, said, “People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
Louis Gerstner, who retired as chairman and CEO of IBM in 2002, wrote in his 2002 book, “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?”:
You’ve probably found, as I have, that most companies say their cultures are about the same things – outstanding customer service, excellence, teamwork, shareholder value, responsible corporate behavior and integrity. But, of course, these kinds of values don’t necessarily translate into the same kind of behavior in all companies – how people actually go about their work, how they interact with one another, what motivates them. That’s because, as with national cultures, most of the really important rules aren’t written down anywhere.
Still, you can quickly figure out, sometimes within hours of being in a place, what the culture encourages and discourages, rewards and punishes. Is it a culture that rewards individual achievement or team play? Does it value risk taking or consensus building?
My friend Bill Brody, president of Johns Hopkins University, told a group of New Yorkers last spring that “as a nation, we’ve begun moving away from risk taking. Increasingly, Americans are becoming unwilling to accept risk of any kind. Fear of failure. Every outcome must be perfect; every baby born unblemished. Don’t expect too much of our students, lest they fail. All Ivy League students should graduate with honors. Everyone who plays gets a trophy.
“Risk aversion is eventually going to drive America into second-class status in our increasingly global economy. Guaranteed outcomes mean lowering our expectations. And lowered expectations lead to mediocrity and sub-par performance.”
If you aren’t afraid to succeed, you can’t be afraid to fail.
Once upon a time, there was a little acorn that wanted to be the best acorn in the world. It went to acorn meetings and attended acorn classes at the University of OAKlahoma, where it discovered that the ultimate goal for an acorn was to grow into a mighty oak tree. However, it must give up its identity as an acorn – something it was not ready to do.
So it spoke to a butterfly and a frog about the situation. Both told the acorn they had been through the same dilemma and were happy now they had risked taking a chance. Finally, the little acorn gave up its attachment and fell to the ground. Later the acorn awoke and, to its amazement, found itself transformed into a grand oak tree. Over the years, many would come to hear the mighty oak tell stories of how great it is to take risks and have the courage to venture beyond the imaginary limits we impose on ourselves.
We need to realize that all the wonders we seek are within ourselves.
Mackay’s Moral: If you walk backward you’ll never stub your toe.
Harvey Mackay is author of the New York Times best-seller “Pushing the Envelope.” He can be reached through his Web site, www.mackay.com, or at Mackay Envelope Corp., 2100 Elm St., Minneapolis, MN 55414.
