The First Step Blog

What is risk?

There’s a great quote that I once heard from Tim Ferris a while back. He was interviewing for a podcast (I don’t recall which) where he and the interviewer were talking about productivity and success. One line that he said rang so true to me that it has stayed with me since and has had a significant impact on my thinking and actions. The interviewer asked Tim if he had any fear or apprehension on trying new things. Tim’s response couldn’t have been more perfect. He replied that he wasn’t afraid to try new thing because very few things are risky. He then went on to define risk as something that has the potential for an irreversible negative outcome.

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What does it mean when certain people say that failure is not an option? What does it mean to fail? The people who truly understand this statement don’t really believe that they won’t fail, or that it can’t happen. In fact, not only do they fully realize that failure is very much an option; they understand it’s inevitable. What that idea is trying to convey is that you should not stop at the first encounter of hardship. Failure is not an option because it’s not a stopping point. Instead, failure is a point which you can continue from and more importantly, a place that can speed up the learning process on your path to success.

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One of the most essential skills that we can improve is our ability to make decisions. For myself, that includes using various methods to make the decision process easier to perform. Some techniques help me to weigh out the pros and cons while other methods allow me to view my decision in a new perspective or to see the bigger picture. Others still provide me with the motivation to act when I would have been too hesitant to do so otherwise.

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