What Do You Miss If You Never Risk Failing?
You already know that a measured risk means accepting some uncertainty after thinking about what could happen. You also know what to do when an attempt does not work: look at what happened, learn from it, adapt and decide what comes next. But there is another side to risk that is easy to miss. What happens when you become extremely good at avoiding it?
Suppose you are thinking about trying out for a team, auditioning for a play or entering a competition. There is an obvious risk: you might not make it. You could avoid that possibility completely by staying home. This is a remarkably effective strategy for never losing, although it has the unfortunate side effect of making winning difficult too.
The Risk of Being New
Some opportunities require you to risk being a beginner. Join a climbing club and other people may already know what they are doing. Try coding and your first program may respond to your careful instructions by doing absolutely nothing. Walk into a new activity and you may spend several minutes pretending you completely understand where everyone is supposed to stand.
Those are real risks, but look at the possible consequences. Being confused, making mistakes or discovering that somebody else is much better than you can feel uncomfortable. Usually, though, those consequences are manageable. On the other side of that uncertainty might be a skill, an activity, a friendship or an interest you did not know you had.
Social Risks Count Too
Starting a conversation can be a measured risk. So can joining a group where you do not know everyone, asking someone for help or inviting somebody to do something. The possible downside might be an awkward moment, rejection or discovering that the conversation has somehow become entirely about someone's cat.
Now use what you already know about assessing risk. What could reasonably happen? How serious is the downside? Is there something worthwhile to gain? Can you change anything to make the situation more comfortable or manageable?
Sometimes the assessment says try it. Sometimes it says change the situation first. Sometimes it still says no. Measured risk-taking does not mean accepting every opportunity that appears.
Ideas Can Be Risks
Creating something also involves uncertainty. Write a story, design something, make a video, build an invention, suggest a different solution or start a small project and there is no guarantee anyone will like it. Someone might disagree with you. Your magnificent invention may turn out to be a cardboard box with unrealistic career expectations.
But creativity has a problem: new ideas cannot arrive with proof that they will work. If the outcome were already completely known, there would not be much experimenting left to do. Trying an idea, seeing what happens and improving it gives you information that thinking about it forever cannot.
This is where your earlier learning cycle becomes useful. You do not need to start over every time something fails. You already know how to look at the result, change something and make the next attempt smarter. The risk created the opportunity to find out.
Confidence Often Comes Later
People sometimes wait until they feel confident before doing something uncertain. Unfortunately, confidence does not always cooperate with this arrangement. Sometimes it shows up after you have done the difficult thing a few times.
You try. You discover that you can handle being nervous, wrong, unsuccessful or new. You make adjustments and improve. Eventually you have evidence from your own experience that says, I have dealt with this kind of uncertainty before. That is a sturdier kind of confidence than simply hoping everything will go perfectly.
Add One More Question
You already have useful questions for assessing risk: What could happen? How serious could the harm be? What can I change? Is this uncertainty worth accepting? Keep them. They help separate a worthwhile challenge from a bad risk.
Now add one more:
What might happen if I don't try?
Sometimes the answer is not much, and there is no good reason to proceed. Sometimes the possible harm is serious enough that the answer should still be no. But other times, what is stopping you is not danger. It is the possibility of being wrong, awkward, unsuccessful or new.
Those are very different things.
A measured risk does not guarantee that something great will happen. It gives you an opportunity to discover something you could not know for certain beforehand.
Sometimes uncertainty is a warning.
Sometimes it is simply what an opportunity looks like before you try.
