Taking risks is a big part of entrepreneurship and it is important to not be afraid of risk. I am a finance major so a rule of thumb is higher risk higher reward. I think that taking big risks right off the start may not be the best way to do it but I think there is a definite way to work up to that point. For example, when you are first starting to be an entrepreneur find lower risk ways to make money and start a company that might not have a lot of overhead or risk. Then if you can get that to succeed you can reinvest money to expand. Investing more money into a business is equivalent to increasing risk but like I said earlier, higher risk higher reward. Another route is being an independent contractor. For example, you can reduce your risk by working for an already established company but also doing your own thing. For example, an insurance salesman in my hometown sells insurance for nationwide and he has talked about the benefits of working for an already established company because you have less risk. According to him he is considered an independent contractor and does not have to deal with all aspects of the business, he instead goes out and sells on his own time using his own resources but he does not have to deal with as much of the behind the scenes stuff.
BoweryJE22
Taking risks when you have considered all the possibilities I believe is a great idea. I think sometimes where taking risks gets a bad wrap is when people do not think of all of the possibilities involved and then are shocked when it does not turn out in their favor or when something they did not expect happens. Risk is also not for everyone. I believe that some people can deal with the ups and downs of risk taking better than others. Good post!
Hi, Owen! Undoubtedly, the idea of higher risk and higher reward applies to entrepreneurship. It is still good, though, to understand what you are “risking.” This is the idea of “getting out of the building” and meeting your customers to verify components of your business model. I think the same concept applies to sales, where you meet with potential customers to see if they are worth pursuing.
Hi Owen, I agree that taking risks is a big part of entrepreneurship. Many of the points you’ve discussed go along with my post about Evan Addams. In that post, I discussed how one of my biggest takeaways from Evan Addams is how to avoid the “paralysis of analysis.” Being afraid to take calculated risks will not only hold you back in sales but also in life.