This will be the first “Guest Post” on this blog, and I’m happy to say it has been written by my Dad. Personally I have always been a risk taker throughout my life. Some times taking risks has worked for me, and other times it has turned out be a miserable failure. Overall though I am confident that had I never taken the risks I have over the past few years, I would not be where I am at today.

This is a great article from someone who understands risk way more than I ever will.

The Biggest Risk Of All Is Never Taking A Risk

By Doug Enke 

I’m not a Rocket Scientist (but some times I play one at work.) To be honest, I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse to work in the Aerospace industry; it’s pretty neat stuff for a “techie” like me, but on the down side I do have to put up with the white collar bureaucratic establishment types every day.

Jeremy and I often talk about how different our career choices have been. While at first glace it might appear that there’s not much in common between working in Aerospace and working in Poker Affiliate Marketing, there is at least one valuable lesson that I have learned in my Aerospace career that I believe can help you achieve success in your chosen field .

For the last several years of my career I have been a Risk Manager at Hamilton Sundstrand for several NASA programs. So, what does a Risk Manager do? Well simply put, it is about looking at the probability of an undesirable event happening, and assessing what the impact of that event would be if it were to occur. (Sounds a lot like what poker players do with every hand).

The real benefit of risk management though isn’t in merely identifying risks, it’s about being able to make “risk informed” decisions. Risk management is about identifying risks first and then devising mitigation plans and or contingency plans to reduce the potential damage that the risks may cause if they happen. But never let risk management be confused with not taking a risk. If NASA did not take risks we would still be on the ground, instead we are charting a course to send men to Mars in the next decade.

To succeed as an astronaut or as a business person in new uncharted territory (like Affiliate Marketing) requires a willingness to take on risk. To insist on no risk, or minimum risk, or even achieving a perfect understanding of the risk crushes any hope of success. My point then is not to avoid risk, rather to use due diligence in assessing the risks at hand and then making appropriate decisions based on your own knowledge and understanding.

As you face life’s inevitable tough decisions in the days ahead (be they business or personal), consider this. On February 1, 2003 the United States suffered a great loss when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, with the loss of all seven crew. One of the Columbia crew members was Laurel Clark. Several years before her unfortunate fate she wrote the following poem in a letter to a college friend. I share this with you in hopes that it will inspire you as it continues to me.

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try at all is to risk failure.

But to risk we must,

Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The man, the woman, who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.