Take risks to get ahead in your business or career

One of the greatest adventures of living is taking charge of your life. It is adventurous because there is no road map to detail how you should do it.

But each of you has to take charge of your life and organise your thoughts, spelling out what you really want. It has to be a plan, a lifelong plan, that focuses on your true desires and aspirations, a real plan wherein you can actually visualise yourself attaining the enjoyable things in life that you really want and deserve and can now have and enjoy.

New advantages in life and business are real for you. You can have them. You can really overcome adversity and have the good life. First, you will have to take the needed steps to put it together and you must also be ready to take the risks.

The risks I want to emphasise are the gutsy ones you will need to get attention and get ahead in your job, the ones you must accept head on if you really want to reach those worthwhile heights in your career. Some of these can be demanding and challenging to your mind and will. Some are so wild they will strain your conservative nature and overload your stress capacity. As you get pressured in a specific situation, you will realise that the only way to reach new heights or to improve your career is to take a risk. You must take it! You can’t turn back! You have to put yourself in a position of total commitment and you have to put everything you are, including your reputation, on the line. Some risky adventures are that heavy.

Women have often been accused of being too timid to take chances. However, more and more women like you are standing up to the most challenging uncertainties and are enjoying the rewards of success. Self-determination is what risk is all about. Those who have it, know within themselves they can take the risk, because they have determined to bring their lives in line with their dream. Many women have gathered enough courage and perseverance to take on serious risks. If the reward of success is worth it, then the risk is worth it.

On the other hand, the vast majority of women still fear taking even the smallest risks and often find various excuses to avoid them. These women, for one reason or another, still lack the self-confidence and commitment to seize the new advantages women can achieve, and they continue to look for excuses as to why they can’t have them. They are the great examples of the cliche, “If you don’t want to do something, any excuse will do.” Once again, you really have to want something, you really have to make a commitment to achieve your dreams. You have to think, “Me first.”

Today your wildest career dreams are within your grasp and if you really, truly want to be part of that small percentage of people who achieve and enjoy the good life, you now have that chance.

Risking all cannot be better said than by authors Jean Ray Laury, Terri P. Tepper, and Nona Dawe Tepper, when addressing the feminist issue in The New Entrepreneurs. They say;

“Risk everything all of the time and quit trying to be safe. Once you’re willing to risk your whole reputation on something, then you can leap forward. That’s when you really have the possibility of moving out from whatever you’ve done before. We spend an awful lot of time defending ourselves and protecting ourselves and being safe and comfortable. If we’re expected to move ahead we have to take chances and we have to take risks and we have to do things that might make us look foolish if they don’t work out, and that’s okay. It’s okay to be wrong. It’s okay to fail if you try something and though in a sense it failed, you’re still a winner. You still come out ahead. I don’t see how there is any way if you risk things, you can really lose. There is so much that you learn; there is so much of value you create.”

The only advantage risk has over you is your fear. Risks and fear are the excitement of life. They make life more interesting and dispel boredom. Fear of taking risk can turn a hero into a coward, can turn the opportunity of wealth into a financial desperation. Fear of actually living the life you deserve will drive you to a secluded mind and spirit and destroy your desired accomplishments.

When in doubt, shun the fear, take the risk and you will be a much happier person for it.

In my career, as in anyone’s who takes on responsibility and decision-making, I have put my job on the line a number of times, either to help someone or to make a point I felt very strongly about. You can’t be involved as decision-maker unless you have the guts and take the risks required for success. Nor can you jump over tall buildings without realising and accepting the possibility that you might fall.

There is risk in everything you do when making big decisions on the job, in planning your personal life (marriage, having a baby) and your career. You must stretch yourself to meet the requirements. You can’t win the lottery unless you buy a ticket. You can’t become Number One without putting yourself in jeopardy. You can’t do anything really big in life without facing some risk. Don’t be intimidated by it.

To be the person you want to be, to be successful, happy and at peace with yourself, “YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO.”

However, always keep these Murphy’s laws in mind, as they will apply at different points along the process of your career:

Law #1 says: Nothing is as easy as it looks.

Law #2 says: Everything takes longer than you think.

Law #5 says: If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

Law #8 says: If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

And the one that you really have to be ready for is Murphy’s law of thermodynamics, which says: Things get worse under pressure.

Murphy’s laws are prefect at explaining stress in a way that brings you down to earth and helps balance your emotions and thinking. It is amazing that these laws are so on target with life. More important, they take the seriousness of the pitfalls, make them human and ease the pain of the adversity. I am glad they came along. I have laughed with them throughout my career.

In summary, I guess you could say that life is one big risk, but it doesn’t have to be something to shy away from. Please don’t go through life missing a good time because you are afraid to drive on the motorway. Don’t stay at home at night because you are afraid of the dark. Don’t miss the adventure of a chanced winning in a confrontation that could have career benefits. Think and plan your way through it, then go for it. But don’t do anything stupid either. Let common sense rule.

From ‘The Boss Should Be A Woman” Jack McAllen. Excerpt reprinted with kind permission of the publisher, Blue Dolphin Publishing Inc, PO Box 8, Nevada City, CA 95959, USA

Take risks to get ahead

the only way to reach new heights or to improve your career is to take a risk. You must take it!

 

One of the greatest adventures of living is taking charge of your life. It is adventurous because there is no road map to detail how you should do it.

But each of you has to take charge of your life and organise your thoughts, spelling out what you really want. It has to be a plan, a lifelong plan, that focuses on your true desires and aspirations, a real plan wherein you can actually visualise yourself attaining the enjoyable things in life that you really want and deserve and can now have and enjoy.

New advantages in life and business are real for you. You can have them. You can really overcome adversity and have the good life. First, you will have to take the needed steps to put it together and you must also be ready to take the risks.

The risks I want to emphasise are the gutsy ones you will need to get attention and get ahead in your job, the ones you must accept head on if you really want to reach those worthwhile heights in your career. Some of these can be demanding and challenging to your mind and will. Some are so wild they will strain your conservative nature and overload your stress capacity. As you get pressured in a specific situation, you will realise that the only way to reach new heights or to improve your career is to take a risk. You must take it! You can’t turn back! You have to put yourself in a position of total commitment and you have to put everything you are, including your reputation, on the line. Some risky adventures are that heavy.

Women have often been accused of being too timid to take chances. However, more and more women like you are standing up to the most challenging uncertainties and are enjoying the rewards of success. Self-determination is what risk is all about. Those who have it, know within themselves they can take the risk, because they have determined to bring their lives in line with their dream. Many women have gathered enough courage and perseverance to take on serious risks. If the reward of success is worth it, then the risk is worth it.

On the other hand, the vast majority of women still fear taking even the smallest risks and often find various excuses to avoid them. These women, for one reason or another, still lack the self-confidence and commitment to seize the new advantages women can achieve, and they continue to look for excuses as to why they can’t have them. They are the great examples of the cliche, “If you don’t want to do something, any excuse will do.” Once again, you really have to want something, you really have to make a commitment to achieve your dreams. You have to think, “Me first.”

Today your wildest career dreams are within your grasp and if you really, truly want to be part of that small percentage of people who achieve and enjoy the good life, you now have that chance.

Risking all cannot be better said than by authors Jean Ray Laury, Terri P. Tepper, and Nona Dawe Tepper, when addressing the feminist issue in The New Entrepreneurs. They say;

“Risk everything all of the time and quit trying to be safe. Once you’re willing to risk your whole reputation on something, then you can leap forward. That’s when you really have the possibility of moving out from whatever you’ve done before. We spend an awful lot of time defending ourselves and protecting ourselves and being safe and comfortable. If we’re expected to move ahead we have to take chances and we have to take risks and we have to do things that might make us look foolish if they don’t work out, and that’s okay. It’s okay to be wrong. It’s okay to fail if you try something and though in a sense it failed, you’re still a winner. You still come out ahead. I don’t see how there is any way if you risk things, you can really lose. There is so much that you learn; there is so much of value you create.”

The only advantage risk has over you is your fear. Risks and fear are the excitement of life. They make life more interesting and dispel boredom. Fear of taking risk can turn a hero into a coward, can turn the opportunity of wealth into a financial desperation. Fear of actually living the life you deserve will drive you to a secluded mind and spirit and destroy your desired accomplishments.

When in doubt, shun the fear, take the risk and you will be a much happier person for it.

In my career, as in anyone’s who takes on responsibility and decision-making, I have put my job on the line a number of times, either to help someone or to make a point I felt very strongly about. You can’t be involved as decision-maker unless you have the guts and take the risks required for success. Nor can you jump over tall buildings without realising and accepting the possibility that you might fall.

There is risk in everything you do when making big decisions on the job, in planning your personal life (marriage, having a baby) and your career. You must stretch yourself to meet the requirements. You can’t win the lottery unless you buy a ticket. You can’t become Number One without putting yourself in jeopardy. You can’t do anything really big in life without facing some risk. Don’t be intimidated by it.

To be the person you want to be, to be successful, happy and at peace with yourself, “YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO.”

However, always keep these Murphy’s laws in mind, as they will apply at different points along the process of your career:

Law #1 says: Nothing is as easy as it looks.

Law #2 says: Everything takes longer than you think.

Law #5 says: If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

Law #8 says: If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

And the one that you really have to be ready for is Murphy’s law of thermodynamics, which says: Things get worse under pressure.

Murphy’s laws are prefect at explaining stress in a way that brings you down to earth and helps balance your emotions and thinking. It is amazing that these laws are so on target with life. More important, they take the seriousness of the pitfalls, make them human and ease the pain of the adversity. I am glad they came along. I have laughed with them throughout my career.

In summary, I guess you could say that life is one big risk, but it doesn’t have to be something to shy away from. Please don’t go through life missing a good time because you are afraid to drive on the motorway. Don’t stay at home at night because you are afraid of the dark. Don’t miss the adventure of a chanced winning in a confrontation that could have career benefits. Think and plan your way through it, then go for it. But don’t do anything stupid either. Let common sense rule.

From ‘The Boss Should Be A Woman” Jack McAllen. Excerpt reprinted with kind permission of the publisher, Blue Dolphin Publishing Inc, PO Box 8, Nevada City, CA 95959, USA

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