The gift of risk-taking!
I had an interesting discussion in the comments of one of my earlier post on the advantages of working in a startup vs established companies. Few people, including me, chipped in with their answers, thoughts and drew analogies. An interesting analogy was by PK when he said that “working at a startup is more like riding a glider-plane or a single engine Cessna in clear weather and enjoying the view vs. flying in a boeing 747 and looking out the window.”
But I think the answer deserves an independent post in itself. Let me follow a different approach to present my case and that is by analyzing the gift of risk-taking. A Fast Company blog-post has an excellent write-up on the same and I am going to copy more than a few statements from the same.
“Do you think the people who were trying to reach the top of Everest were not full of doubts? For a hundred years, people tried and lost their lives. Not even their dead bodies came back. But still, more people tried…risking…knowing that they may never come back. Why? Because it was worth it. Because in the very risk something is born inside you: the center. It is born only in the risk. That’s the beauty of risk, the gift of risk.” –Paraphrased from Osho (1931-1990), Indian Professor of Philosophy, Spiritual master.
The above statements by Osho says it all – it’s hard to express it any better. Now, let’s try to relate it to working in a startup. Is the risk of working in a startup that high? Do you fear losing your life? Certainly No! At most, let’s face it, you will be laid-off if the startup shuts shop and you will have to find another job. Other than that – there is no risk – I maintain there is absolutely no risk; you will learn more, you will grow more, and you will have earned more than most other places that you could have been. And if you were really valuable for the startup, it’s guaranteed that you will be a fit at most other organizations.
Before going into the positives of risk-taking, let me again ask the questions that the author of the Fast Company Blog posed.
“When in your life did you feel most alive? What were you doing? Why did it feel so good?” He goes on to say that “I have asked hundreds of people the same question and have been struck by the similarity of their answers. In particular I’ve noticed 3 themes. (1) Nearly everyone describes a scenario in which they pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and took risks. (2) The OUTCOME of taking the risk is rarely the main thrust of the story – it’s usually the process of taking them that they remember most fondly. (3) When people finish their story, they’ve often got a big smile on their face.”
That is the beauty of risk. Nearly every really satisfying activity involves taking risks and the fun is never measured by what you achieved but always because of the person you became because of the entire experience. This is exactly what I meant when I said – “The fun is not in joining Microsoft, the fun is in creating a Microsoft.” The end result of creating a Microsoft (it’s just an example) is definitely appealing (and important) but most people get a kick out of the journey in reaching there.
To end – I will shamelessly pick up another quote from the same FC post:
The gift of risk-taking doesn’t lie in what you achieve by risking – it lies in who you become as a result of the process. Confident. Engaged. Alive. Furthermore, it isn’t something you do once in a while – it’s an approach to life. Open. Exploratory. Daring. You know it when you let it slip out of your life. You feel stagnant, lethargic, bored. Risks have no shelf life – yesterday’s risks are today’s ego trip. Today is new. RE-ENGAGE. RE-RISK.
Simply superb…
There is nothing big I have done so far but I say proudly that I am working with a startup. It’s great working with you guys.
I must say one thing that people working in startup are very passionate and energetic. I think, it’s worth risk taking
Rightly said. Life is all about taking intelligent risks.
“The best piece of advice someone gave to me was that the biggest risk in life is not to take a risk at all.”
- Sabeer Bhatia
I think that risk taking does not always yield the expected results. IBM’s failure against the Microsoft’s OS is an example. While risk taking gives Microsoft a complete monopoly on the OS market, it simply put an end to IBM’s OS dreams…. But in the end it is an important part of business and one need to adopt it in todays competitive environment.
The risk reward prophecy has been there for ages and morphs into new sayings and stories in business writings. There is an element of risk/challenge in every decision you make in life and one takes numerous such risks every day. The decisions represents their fundamental build up of how they evaluate the situation and circumstances. Career choices also represent one such risk based decision. Not every startup gives you the same career exposure and experience that can negate the risk associated with it. Yes there is an adrenaline rush and excitement that working for a start up begins but it needs to be evaluated with the right decision inputs. Yes you need to be crazy person to take the wildest of the risks to make big in life but the reality of data tells you that those kind of persons are few and far.
Anyway good luck Ashish with your venture!
Arvinder S
hey ashish…
very nice explaination of the whole concept……
I realy loved ur explaination of three themes,especially ‘The OUTCOME of taking the risk is rarely the main thrust of the story – it’s usually the process of taking them that they remember most fondly’….
Just too good..…
wow…everest pe chadh ke,kisney kaun sa teer mara hai, aur wo kahan laga hai?
Clarification: This comment is not by the author of the post but somebody else with the same name.
Thanks all.
Ashish – its all a game of perception. I think those who climbed Everest did something really big. Not everybody can do the same. Similarly – completing a full marathon is exemplary and so is making a new scientific discovery.
And so is taking risk
This is what I truly believe in.
Thanks Ashish for bringing up this inspiring post. Really motivates to re-engage, re-risk.
Somewhere between Marshall McLuhan’s quote “Art is anything you can get away with” and Andy Grove’s comment “Only the paranoid survive” exists the sweet spot. Find it and risk becomes intelligent. Slip on it or via causes of environment and the reality of life is determined by how well we get back up, recovering and growing from the experience. The irony of risk is that it is very much about how we embrace failure rather than salute success and the more sensitive we are, the more well read we are, the greater the radar of awareness becomes on our individual risk screen. Yet those who fly through do it because they didn’t see depths or variables or decisions created by either the application of sensitivity or intellect, for they simply walked from point A to point B across society’s canyon. They did so because of investment in their particular mission, an investment that requires payments of professional interest. There is no need to find a great mind to describe this focus, for focus is determined by our unique abilities to establish within our own selves governed over a lifetime in the making. Focus requires the creation of a risk which isn’t an investment in the public mind but a return on the private heart.
M.
Really love your post !