We must put the things which can go wrong in the back of our minds, while keeping the things which must go right in the front. We must be dynamic, vigorous risk-takers, whose eyes are always turned toward our strengths and assets, rather than toward our weaknesses and liabilities. We must wake up in the morning thinking only of “ways to do the things we want to do” , rather than waking up thinking of “all the reasons why we cannot do those things”

We must repeatedly think of the many achievements which we are going to accomplish in the future. Which must be vastly superior to anything we have ever done in the past. Having said this, DOING THIS will probably take some RISK.

Anyone who achieves anything of greatest has first had to take some kind of RISK.

FLIP WILSON’S STORY

Flip Wilson, the famous comedian, is best know for his ability to make people laugh. Once he said on a more serious note. “I fell down and got up, I fell down and got up. For sixteen years I did practically nothing else but fall down and get up.“

Even so I bet you Flip Wilson never saw himself as a failure. If he did he would have never found the courage to try “just one more time,” and you and I would probably have never even heard his name.

THE YOUNG MILLIONAIRES

Bob talks of a book he read on the subject of risk taking. It was called The Young Millionaires, and he says it contains the true-life stories of eighteen individuals, each of who had earned in excess of one million dollars. He says a lot of them even exceeded one million dollars.

He says 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.

This one thing simply put 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!”

Fighter Pilot Ready

A research into fighter pilots was done some years ago. These fighter pilots fought in World War 2. What they determined, contrary to what people might think, many of the pilots that “played it safe” during the war, were among the first to be killed in combat.

They 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!

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 that 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.” 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.

It’s important therefore for us to gain an awareness that regardless of what anyone has told us, none of us were ever born with a fear of taking risks. As I clearly indicated above, the fear of taking risks is something which we LEARNED, only after we entered this wonderful world of ours. In fact, in contrary to what many people have mistakenly been left 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 never to 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 considerable different from acting foolishly. You might actually encounter a few situation where the line separating these two concepts becomes extremely narrow. Nevertheless, it is absolutely essential you never cross over that line, inadvertently, or otherwise!

Risk taking is also 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.

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 actually achieve some success, but these occur infrequently, and they are normally over shadowed by the negative results that they are not even worth mentioning.

Think about a person who dives off a cliff into a shallow body of water, simply because he has been dared by his friends. Although this person may be afraid to dive, for some strange reason he is even more afraid of what the others might think or say if he did not dive. This persons fear of diving is perfectly normal, in view of the fact that he probably has had no training as a diver. As a result of this, when he does contemplate what might happen if he did dive, he visualizes himself being very seriously injured. For this individual to go ahead and dive would be EXTREMELY FOOLISH, would you not agree? His actions would have to be considered irresponsible by anyone’s standards.

On the other hand if this same person was a trained professional diver and if he were skilled at taking all the various factors into consideration, lets say for example that he was able to visualize himself successfully going through all of the necessary motions such as swimming to shore, stepping back on land unharmed, checking the levels appropriately, 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.

STUNT PEOPLE in the movie industry are constantly performing dangerous acts. In fact, that is precisely what they get paid for. But do not be deceived! For these men and women are not amateurs by any means. They are all competent professionals, highly skilled in the performance of their dangerous trade. They check and double check every calculation, before they make even the simplest move. As a result, they very rarely get injured. Stunt people are DEFINITELY risk takers, but they are very rarely irresponsible individuals!

INVESTMENTS

Now, turn your attention to a guy who invests his inheritance in a venture which he knows practically nothing about. Lets say that a person who he held in high esteem suggested this investment as a great idea and that the investors stood to earn an extraordinary high rate of return on it. Let’s also assume 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 decided 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: worrying about the investment and visualizing himself reduced to a state of abject poverty.

It is SO clear 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 “RISK TAKER.” The outcome is predictable! The individual in question loses the money, not to mention the former friendship of the individual who orginally suggested the investment. (The reason for this is simple! Foolish, irresponsible people seldom blame themselves for making such errors.)

On the other hand, if this person in question 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.

If our hypothetical individual followed the second course of action, he would certainly be taking a risk.  Lets say in the second instance that this person did make a bad judgment call and lost his money. 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 judgment. Also the individual would probably not reject future investment possibilities, should they arise.

So I’m sure you are getting this loud and clear – RISK TAKERS are knowledgeable people who study situations carefully, have confidence in their own abilities and have very healthy self-image. Put more succinctly, we can say risk-takers, unlike irresponsible people, are “nobody’s fool.”

BUSINESS FAILURES

If we 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 going into bankruptcy, should never have gone into business for themselves in the first place, either because they were not properly prepared or because they simply did not know what they were doing.

These people 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 properly established, some of these individuals didn’t allow for three months, or even three weeks, to give their business a chance.

ALSO, note that many of these people were those employees who thought their boss was incompetent, or the owners of the company which employed them didn’t know what they were doing. Obviously, everyone who fails to get a new business going does not fall into this category, but there are certainly many people who do.

Having said that, there certainly are many individual risk-takers who have succeeded in establishing businesses of their own.

In the great musical South Pacific, Mary Martin sang, “If you don’t have a dream, if I don’t have a dream, how are we going to make a dream come true?”

I believe that everyone of us has our OWN DREAM. We all have a vision, an idea or a picture of some great or grand thing or accomplishment, which will float to the surface of our consciousness from time to time. For a few brief moments, we permit ourselves doing, being or having, whatever that dream might be. There is no doubt in my mind that you too “hold” a picture of something which floats to the surface of your consciousness periodically, and if the truth were to be known, you would dearly love to execute that dream.

Well, the simple TRUTH is YOU CAN! But in ALL LIKELIHOOD, it is going to require a CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF COURAGE on your part. Remember, it makes no difference, at this moment, how bizarre your idea might appear. In fact, you might even regard it as sheer fantasy. Nevertheless, you can begin to turn it into a reality, by making a written description of whatever it is you would like to do, have or be. Write out your ambition in as much details as possible and in the present tense. Do not write it out as something that you are “planning” to do; rather, write it out is if it were something you are currently doing. In big bold letters write, “I CAN” and then yell it, say it and sing it – drill the idea that you are now going to do this thing, into your subconscious mind. Then, choose a friend who has a lot of confidence in you – someone whose thinking is compatible with your own, not someone who will put you down and laugh at your idea – to share your idea with. Select someone who will build you up and help instill confidence in you, with respect to your idea.

Remember that is makes no difference whether your goal is starting a new business, buying a building a new home, getting a new automobile, a new position at work, setting a sales record, or getting an honors mark in school. Whatever it may be, you must step out and boldly pursue it!

Keep reminding yourself that you have tremendous reservoirs of potential within you, and therefore, you are quite capable of doing almost anything you “set your mind to.” All you must do is figure out how you can do it, not whether or not you can. Begin to visualize yourself as a risk-taker and then start telling yourself you are one. Become fully aware of the “good vibrations” you get simply by virtue of practicing these simple mental exercises.

Find yourself a PEN AND PAD. Prepare a balance sheet by taking an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and draw a straight line down the center of the page. On the left hand side, place a minus sign and on the right hand side place a plus sign. Under the minus sign, write out the very worst thing that could happen to you, if you were to follow through with your idea. On the right hand side, write out all the good things – the very best things – that could happen to you if you were to go ahead with this dream. Clearly understand that so long as what you plan to do is honest and honorable, whatever goes on the left hand side of the page is not going to be disastrous. On the other hand, however, what goes on the right hand side of the page could turn out to be absolutely magnificent.

For three years now I have been studying the biographies and autobiographies, of men and women who have truly accomplished “something of significance” in their lifetime. I have found, moreover, that almost without exception, these individuals had fallen short of their goals on numerous occasions, but that never deterred them!

I too have failed to hit the mark on a few occasions and I will admit that it is painful to experience this. It also can be embarrassing. Be that as it may, it has NEVER and never will stop me doing my best again and again. Guess what, it needn’t stop you either! We all posses the ability to get up and get going once again.

Make up your mind right now, that you are going to become the “RISK-TAKER” you truly wish to become and were BORN to be.

Have a GREAT day!

Jared Talbot