Taking the Risk – Part One

By Dawn Flanigan Johnson
MORTAR Events Manager

Deepak Chopra, the world renowned author, public speaker, alternative medicine advocate, and a prominent figure in the New Age movement, said “A risk-free life is far from being a healthy life. Meaning, in order to truly live a fulfilling and happy life, we must take risks. Have you ever thought about it like that? Have you ever looked at the journey of building your business and legacy as a matter of life and death? Well, young grasshopper… IT IS!

When asked how he was able to overcome his fears and take the risk to build MORTAR, Here’s what Allen Woods had to say… “Honestly, I never live my life in fear – because that’s not really LIVING. I’ve always been the type of person to jump out of the window and make something happen before I reach the ground. Being brave and taking risks is essential for anyone chasing success”.

In a competitive society, success is all but impossible without taking risks. If you are really serious about building your business,  at some point, you will have to take a leap of faith, truly believe in yourself and take the risk of a lifetime.  Every successful business owner has gotten to the point where they’ve had to make the decision to risk the comfort and security of their everyday lives by putting it all on the line and investing fully and completely in their business.  My hope is that one day, you too, will be making the same decision to take a risk. Once you do, you will discover all of the amazing possibilities and opportunities that are out there that are tailor made for you.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Most of the time, when people begin to assess whether or not it’s time to take the leap, quit their job and work on their business full-time, they immediately become overwhelmed with stress and fear and think about all of the worst things that can happen. Great! That’s a wonderful place to start, you HAVE to be reasonable, but don’t let reason hold you back from moving forward. One of the best ways to overcome your fears, are to write them down.

Take out a piece of paper right now and divide it into two sections.

In one section, write:

1. A) Quit My Job

And in the next section, write:

1. B) Stay At My Job

Now, ask yourself this question “what’s the worst that can happen if I take this option?” for each.
Think about it for a few minutes, then write the answers down in the appropriate section.

After writing down all of the consequences, rate them on a scale of 1-10: 10 being devastatingly bad, and 1 being not bad at all.

Here are some of the worst things that could possibly happen if you were to quit

– You could hate entrepreneurship
– You could realize that you don’t have the skills
– You might not make any money with your business
– You could spend some of your savings building a business that never takes off.

And if this happened, you would either have to re-visit your business, change direction, and spend more of your savings, or you’d have to get another job.
That might be a 6 on the pain scale, because nobody would have died, gone bankrupt, lost their house, or ended up in jail.

Now, If you didn’t quit your job, what is the worst that could happen?

– You could be laid off
– You could be unhappy for the rest of your working life
– You might never gain flexibility and freedom to do more meaningful work
– Your earning potential would be limited to what the company will pay you

Because you would be less happy, this might be an 8 on the pain scale.

Then, compare the two. Which alternative has the higher pain scale?

Getting the “worst case scenario” out of your head and onto paper and seriously considering how painful each scenario would be is a powerful way to look at the situation through a different lens.. Stay tuned to the MORTAR blog for “Taking the Risk – Part Two”!