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The power of new beginnings - How to evaluate your risks

There’s a saying that goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt”.

Familiarity is easy, it’s comforting, it’s simple - we know our way around things , we wake up to a certain way of going about our day, we eat the food that we’ve grown up on, we go to familiar places when we’re low because they bring us memories, we like spending time with friends from school and college because of the easy rapport we share, we listen to songs that lift us up when we’re low, we like to go down the same winding lanes, we sometimes re-read the same books, rearrange the same solved puzzle, rematch an old classic…

My point is, familiarity has a strange solace that makes it easy to go back, tempting even. But it’s the uncharted territory that brave harts would rather follow.

Take it from the achievers, the weird ones, the new breed of experimental scientists , the startup  gurus, the hackers, the bloggers, the marketers, the small business owners, the chefs, the artists, the authors - it isn’t about familiarity anymore, but about risks.

LinkedIn founder Reed Hoffman once said, to win you need:

-         great distribution
-         A product that really stands out / really great product (yes, there’s a difference)
-         something new that disrupts an industry or creates a new one

In fact every recent successful venture you might have heard of, will fulfil at least one of these prerequisites (even LinkedIn).

For example -

Twitter - 140 characters, who knew it would click so much? So many people are now known as “twitter celebs” and actually earn a living from some part of their popularity.

Twitter wasn’t just a great product, it also helped create a whole new industry and lots of jobs. As if that weren’t enough, it created a plethora of opportunities as well.

It all comes down to intelligent risks.

When it comes to starting something new - a job, a relationship, a project or a unit, there’s always that thing about a risk being attached.

When opportunities knock, there’s always a tiny risk attached as well.

The risks to take, are intelligent risks. These are the ones with a manageable downside, with no mortal damage to important relationships, property or capital, which don’t affect your long term emotional and market stability.

in essence, you can sign up for a low paying job to pursue your passion for a fixed period of time provided you give yourself an ultimatum - your passion brings you productive returns in say x number of years. After that, you stop - check what you did wrong, what you did right and what could’ve been done better, and move on to a new beginning.

What’s not an intelligent risk is to take everything you own and invest in a new project - it could go two ways, either it pays off and you’re the winner or you lose everything and start from zilch. That’s a risk, yes but intelligent, no.

It is okay to accept, that sometimes we take risks that don’t pay off. I have lived through most of my risks - forgoing high paying jobs. Job security and sometimes, opportunities. But looking back, most of my risks have been worthwhile.

In my next post on new beginnings, I will speak more on all you need to evaluate your risks, strengths, weaknesses and techniques.

What other posts would you like me to share my experiences with you all about? Comment your views below.

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