Risk and Reward

All growth . . . is the result of risk-taking.
— Jude Wanniski (b. 1944-), English actress

If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
— Erica Jong (b. 1942-), American feminist writer

If these two women are correct, what is it about risk, then, that induces panic, sometimes to the point of paralysis?

Accordingto Linda Austin (author of What’s Holding You Back?), women take fewer risks than men, overall. We’re socialized to let men be the adventurers. We, generally, take fewer, smaller risks, preferring instead to bet always on the sure thing. But while reading Austin's book, I compiled a list of the risks I’ve taken in my own life, and it was fairly lengthy. Except in a few very distinct areas. Professional growth. Finances. Relationships.

Well, I can now safely cross the last one off that list.

Risk means there’s no guarantee. The answer and/or outcome is not obvious. If you take a risk, if you venture, if you gamble . . . you might F-A-I-L. But you also might succeed beyond your wildest dreams. I think that’s what Erica Jong means in her quote. What good is doing the safe thing every time, if in the process, I stifle myself and all my possibilities?

I heard an inspirational speaker last fall who said that every risk he’s ever taken has turned out more spectacularly than anything he could ever have imagined. He challenged us, then, to throw open the door of mystery and take a peek at what might be on the other side. Sure, the not knowing is scary. But isn’t the possibility of staying in the same place and not growing scarier?

I have no idea how my most recent risk is going to pan out. We can’t go backwards — only forward — from here. I do know, though, that things have shifted, now. And regardless of the result, knowing I cared enough about myself — and the other person involved — to take the risk, makes the risk itself worth having taken.

I have often found myself wishing I had a crystal ball so that I could know for sure how things would turn out. It's kind of interesting that it really bothers the person with whom I took this recent giant risk that I often read the last page of a novel first. "Nooooo!!!!" he said, when I told him about that little habit of mine. "You can't do that!! Why would you do that?!?" But I like knowing who to root for, just like I prefer to know the storyline of the movie before I get there.

Life, though, is not a novel or a movie, with a pat, fixed ending. It is an exploration, a journey. It’s like a great big mad scientist’s lab. We can’t possibly know the results before we experience them. If we did, what would be the point?