How often do we risk a risk? How often do we create a shift within ourselves to leave the trodden path and try something new? How often do we display the courage to get out of comfort zone and are prepared to accept both success and failure with grace?

Simply speaking, a risky situation involves exposure or danger. It’s about taking a chance and leaping towards something more or less unknown to us. It is indeed a step out of our comfort zone! So what is our comfort zone? It’s an area that we are most familiar with and therefore most comfortable with. It’s the known-known! It lends us whatever we need in a day and keeps fear of the unknown at bay! But the thing about a comfort zone is that it serves different people differently. Some of us live the same life day after day and don’t dream ahead of newer things and therefore are risk neutral. 

Then there are some others who also live the same life day after day and dream of bigger and better things but tend to cling on to their comfort zones, and won’t take a step ahead to go after that dream or desire, as they won’t even consider taking risks. These are completely risk averse people whose dreams but remain dreams alone!

Then there is the last and albeit a rather tiny proportion of people who do live the same life day after day but also at some point invest their time and energy in chasing their dreams and desires to turn them into their life’s reality….these are the action takers, these are the risk takers!

Such risk tolerant people may actually be in similar situations as the risk neutral and the risk averse folks, however what sets them apart is that no matter what, they feel claustrophobic in the same state. The status quo like stagnant waters to them! They crave change, they crave the new, they crave the better and are willing to go seek all there is and in the process evolve and live life to their maximum potential.

Take the example of Warren Buffett purchasing all the Coca-Cola shares, when his colleagues and friends thought that he is out of his mind to take such a risk. Ultimately, the risk taken was worth it, and he became one of the richest men in the world at the time! Closer home, in India, Dhirubhai Ambani stated that “true entrepreneurship comes only from risk-taking”.

You know that naysayers, would come back saying “well, there is risk in stepping out of your house, there is risk in driving a car, there is risk in crossing the road, there is a risk in this and that….”. Well that’s exactly what we need to recognize! Despite all of these risks, don’t we still go out and live our lives? And we do so simply because we are wired to make these choices as our comfort zone and choosing to be ordinary and living the same mechanical actions every day!

What is then lacking is a push from being ordinary to the extra ordinary – the zeal to take risks, seek out what you are really after in life – be it better finances, better jobs or career, better health, better relationships, more joy, just about anything! 

Now, risk taking does not also mean you go to the extreme and jump off a cliff! Do some calculations, figure out what could be put to stake, risk what you have to and take that step!

Take the risks that help you move inch by inch towards what you dream and just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, tune yourself to build the appetite of taking the risks and tolerating failures. Incy wincy spider has a lot of lessons for us here!

Remember the market principle? Higher the risk, higher the reward! 

So, the essence and joy of life is to take that step ahead, stop questioning the mundane, and move from the known knowns to the known unknowns! Remember, my friend, take that risk to transform from making a living to making a life!

“Life is a very complex interplay of various factors and there has to be acceptance of the risks inherent in coping with it and yet keep moving on!”

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam