The Thing About Risk

Photo by Cristofer Maximilian on Unsplash

Risk is a hard concept to really come to grips with.

I mean, we intuitively understand that everything we do comes with some measure of risk, which we accept as a normal part of everyday life. For example, crossing the street, driving a car, or getting on a flight entails risk, but we don’t generally give it too much (if any) thought. 

But with bigger decisions, our assessment of risk is, understandably, quite different. We process them in a very different manner. Whether we’re deciding to take on a new role, start a business, or a new relationship, the uncertainty that comes with the territory weighs far more heavily upon us. 

We analyze both the perceived benefits as well as the issues that could arise. We consider the obstacles we’ll have to deal with as well as whether or not we’ll achieve our desired outcome. How we balance the benefits and the costs is a function of two things.

There’s an objective element to it - the weighing of the pros and cons based on the facts of the situation. Will my responsibilities expand? Will I make more money? Will I travel more or less? These are all things we can measure and compare with what we have now.

There’s also a subjective element to it, considerations based on more personal factors. Our upbringing, our environment, our education, our personal experiences and, our own interpretation of all of the above. 

In so many ways, our subjective senses become more important, as we use them to assign more or less weightage to our decision criteria. This can be good but it can also be bad if we weight the perceived more heavily than the real. Doing so leads to poorer decisions for so many of us, because it stops us from taking that risk and making that change - when we should. We effectively lose ourselves in the risk of the situation, the unknown and what could possibly go wrong. 

But that’s what putting yourself out there - taking a risk - is really about. It’s about weighing the odds and then making the decision that moves us forward. It’s NOT about eliminating uncertainty. Because there is no clearly defined path. You aren’t going to be given any guarantees. You don’t know how it will end. 

But you decide to do it anyway, driven by a deep belief in yourself and a deep belief in your idea.  

The question to ask ourselves then, is what’s driving our decision?