The Uncomfortable Truth About Taking Risks.

Our Fears For The Unknowns Are Like Big Angry Alligators!

We know we do not like to stretch our decision-making into something new and unknown.  It is not one of our strong characteristics.  We know that.  We harbor within our souls all of the normal fears that have a tendency to reduce our desire to do new things.  The normal fears we harbor inside keep our decisions for risk-taking closer to the things we are more familiar with doing.  In the end, we will decide to do the things we are most familiar with doing.  That is how most of us operate our business models.  That is how most of us operate our life of living.  We stay close to the things we know.

Even though operating a business is already a risky venture to perform, it does not compare to the risk we take when we are trying to do something we have never done before.  When we choose to perform new tasks in an area we have no previous expertise doing, we are playing with higher levels of real risk.  Those kinds of risks look very large.  Doing something we have never tried before seems too risky for us to do.  They look like very big shoes to fill.  We would choose to fail at doing something we know rather than try to succeed by doing something we know nothing about.  It is a much safer way to live.  We are terrible risk takers.

There are strong correlations in the relationships between the size of success and the size of the risk taken.  The higher the risk, the higher the potential return.  As well as the corollary of that rule, the smaller the risk the smaller the potential loss.  High risk taking bears the best potential for higher returns.  It also carries the most opportunities for larger potential losses.  We tend to fear the loss more than we expect the gain.  As a result, we will take less risks.

Our motivation factors for risk taking get clipped by our fears that feed what we are not willing to give up.  Regardless of the level of pain we have become used to living, at least we know what that pain is all about.  We accept that level of pain since it is part of the stuff we already know.  It is the unknown that scares the heck out of us.  We will always allow that kind of thinking to dominate how we take the risks we need to take to become more successful in our business lives.

The unknowns truly become the most powerful things that dominate which risks we are willing to take.  The unknowns are the things that truly hold us back from taking larger risks towards producing better levels of business success.  These are the things that become very uncomfortable for most of us to deal with.  We do not like the idea of how the higher the risk we take the greater the potential loss may be if the risk does not pan out well.  Not knowing how our results will turn out keeps us away from taking those higher risks.  The unknowns play havoc with the mind when new and exciting ideas come to the surface.

The one thing that comes with new and exciting ideas is the potential for doing something we have never done before.  We must first accept to take a new risk when we try out new ideas.  New risks bring on new challenges.  New challenges bring on new fears.  New fears bring on a lot of unfavorable feelings about the unknowns.  This is exactly how risk taking works.  This becomes the uncomfortable truth about risk taking.

Feeling uncomfortable about trying out some new ideas is a normal part of taking risks.  It comes packaged with all new ideas.  That is exactly why all new ideas are usually met with resistance.  Nobody wants to feel uncomfortable when trying to decide to do new things.  We tend to believe that doing new things should help us feel better.  Why try to do something new and exciting only if it helps us feel better.  We begin our early evaluation about changing our ways, about doing something new and unknown by first measuring how we feel about doing the necessary work and required steps that will produce the change.  We first examine the work that we need to apply.  We rarely study the potential results.  This is why our fears dominate the process.  We can only see the work required to make new changes.  We cannot see the results they may produce.  This is another reason why we feel so uncomfortable about taking risks.

These truths are part of the package, part of the driving restrictions for curbing our desire for developing new challenges that will produce better long term results.  We remain uncomfortable with the uncomfortable because we truly know what it looks like.  It is no longer a fearful unknown.  We eat the wrong fast foods at McDonald's because it is McDonald's fault.  We know exactly what to expect when we travel the roads and stop to get a bite to eat.  There are no surprises at McDonald's.  The food is not great, the prices are not unknown and the service is always the same.  We know exactly what we are getting.  It ain't the best in the world but at least we know what to expect.  That is exactly why McDonald's is so successful.  They are willing to accept the blame for the wrong foods we choose.  We can remain faultless.  Our risk factors were completely removed from the running fears we manage in our travels.  We do not need to accept the blame for selecting some little eatery off the side of the road that delivered to us some really bad food and terrible service.  If we took the risk to pick that kind of place when we travel, it becomes our fault.  We hate that feeling more than we dislike the bad food McDonald's supplied.

We Have Some Very Large Alligators Hiding In Our Fears!

Last night I was invited to go to dinner with another couple.  It was one of those spur of the moment events.  Someone invited my wife and I to join them while they celebrated the birthday of a friend.  We met them at a riverside restaurant.  The reservation seats were great.  The river view was wonderful.  I chose a food item on the menu I have never tried before.  It was a "medium rare" brazened tuna dish.  My order caught the attention of the other three people sitting at the table.  All of them were surprised at my choice.  Each of them ordered the usual stuff; fettuccine, fish and chips and a custom hamburger with fries.  They all got what they expected.  Certainly no real risk taking applied.  However, each of them thoroughly made a point to examine the dish I selected when it was delivered.  The comments began.  My dish was certainly the center of attention for the first few minutes.  It was loaded with unknowns.  It was feared to be what they did not know would come.  I quietly listened to all three of them discuss how they felt about the food I ordered.  Even so, one of them wanted to try a little bite.  She was the birthday one.  She was willing to try out something new and unknown.  I gave her a piece.  She loved it.

Our fears hold us back from trying out something new.  We need a good excuse to perform that task.  We would much prefer to remain steadfast with the things we know.  There is less to fear by doing those kinds of things.  New unknowns feed too many of our normal fears and become the parts that usually get in the way of holding us back from doing anything that resembles new ways.  That is the main reason why so many business owners do not change the parts of their business model that are not working well.  They continue to support doing stuff that does not work well because they are familiar with doing that stuff.  It is too risky to try something new, especially if that new idea is very unknown.  This is the uncomfortable truth about taking risks.  My goodness, it is just a simple meal!  Yet we are so afraid of stepping out and trying to enter the world of unknowns.  Our fears hold us back from trying out something new.  Business owners struggle deeply with this stuff.  That is exactly why they remain doing the stuff that does not work well.  It is the uncomfortable part of why they do what they do.

The next important thing to examine is to find out if we are the business owners allowing these kinds of fears to dominate our levels of good risk taking policies.  How do we know if we are making this simple mistake?  How do we know if we are not taking proper risks to change the stuff that needs changing?  How do we know?

The best trick I know is to examine how uncomfortable our decisions make us feel.  If the decision to introduce a new change makes us feel very uncomfortable, then we might be headed in the right direction.  Deciding to do something new is a very uncomfortable thing to do.  We will know we are on the right track when our comfort level gets interrupted.  If we are not uncomfortable with a decision to do some kind of new idea, then the idea is not a very large step of risk.  The higher the level of comfort, the lower the level of risk.  That is also part of the truth associated with risk-taking decisions.  Higher risks carry higher fears.  Higher fears produce higher levels of uncomfortable feelings.  This is also part of the uncomfortable truth about risk taking.  We will feel uncomfortable when the risks are tall.  This is a good thing.

We know we are making some big changes on some new ideas when we feel more uncomfortable about making those changes.  Our comfort levels tell us how much change we are actually producing.  We tend to move our decision-making skills down the path of comfort.  We usually like to remain more comfortable when we make our business decisions.  We consider comfort as a good thing to maintain.  Looking for more comfort is our normal human tendencies coming to the top of the decision-making chart.  We usually feel that being comfortable is an important thing to maintain.  We prefer to remain comfortable more than we prefer to feel uncomfortable.  That is usually why we limit our risk taking skills.  We like to be comfortable more often.

If we want to change how our outcomes can be improved, we need to prepare our minds to become more uncomfortable in what it is willing to risk.  That is the uncomfortable truth about taking risks.  We will not find risk taking more comfortable to do.  By the way...the tuna was excellent.  It was likely one of the best meals on the menu.  I noticed as we were leaving that restaurant, the gentleman at the nearby table was telling his mate that he was planning to order the tuna.  He was telling her how good it was.  As I walked by him, I stopped to confirm his choice.  He said thanks and closed his menu and set it down.  His choice was set.  He was going to have the tuna.  His risk was now feeling more comfortable to do.

Until next time...