Since you can’t live your life backwards, you can’t know how things would have worked out if you had made different choices. You’ll never know what would have happened if you had done the thing you couldn’t work up the courage to do.
But I learned about the importance of risk-taking by observing someone who wasn’t big on risk.
This person was vying for a promotion at work. She had done an excellent job at her company. She worked in finance, and had never made a mistake with the numbers – her reports were always on time and accurate.
The thing was, although this person was accurate and punctual, she never stuck her neck out. She didn’t take risks. She kept things calm and organized. She always produced great reports. But she did not speak up at meetings, nor raise questions or concerns about proposed initiatives.
Unfortunately, many of us are trained this way in school. We’re taught to do well on tests, absorb the material, and not ask too many questions.
But this sort of mentality doesn’t make for good management material. Leaders need to be willing to take risks. So often, the people who fail in school succeed in business. And vice versa.
For the person in question, her careful perfectionism created the reputation that she was good at what she did, but was not a risk-taker. She wasn’t seen as someone who was bold and confident. She was seen as someone who was willing to take orders, but shouldn’t be giving them.
Given her excellent track record at work, my friend was shocked when she didn’t get the management position she’d sought. She wanted to grow in her career, and she thought that if you did your work well, you’d be promoted – like if you do your school work well, you get good grades.
But it doesn’t always work this way. You’ve got to be seen as having it all if you want to work your way up in an organization. This means you need to have the ‘soft skills’ of self-confidence, trustworthiness, and business acumen along with the technical or project skills that make you valuable to your organization in the first place.
And strangely enough, you’ve got to be willing to take risks. Not being willing to do so might be the biggest risk you take.
