Have you been taking any risks lately? Is risk something that makes you uncomfortable? Or are you holding yourself back from taking risks? On International Women’s Day, I joined alumni from my school in celebrating with the girls at the school. We organized a mentorship session that left me inspired and also left me with a few personal questions that I needed to answer. I was honored to be part of the panel discussion, and I tackled the question “How can we encourage women to take risks and pursue their passions in their careers?”
I shared my journey starting and running LatitudeZero Opportunities how this remains the biggest risk I have ever taken in my life, and how this shaped my perspective about risk. This was a very short discussion, and I did not have too much time to delve into details. This question also made me introspect on my current path and whether I am taking enough risks. It was a situation of which the adviser needed to take their advice, and I am glad that this conversation put me on a pedestal also to push myself.
When I started my company, I did not have a clue of what I was getting myself into. All I wanted was to help create opportunities for young people through skills training. The risks I had to take in between were unprecedented. A good example was when covid hit, governments around the world banned social gatherings and ours was no different. This meant that we could no longer hold workshops which were how our training programs were run. I somehow became a couch potato as I tried to figure what next for me, the employees and our beneficiaries. Our company was about 8 months old at this point, and we were only getting a hang of things. My business partner and I decided that we were down but not out of the game. HyracTech, another company that had an offline server came through for us. We figured we could load most of our content to this server and have remote workshops for our participants. We took the risk, and it bore fruits.
Over the years, I have calculatedly taken lots of risks and put myself out there, but sometimes I wonder if I am taking enough risks. For instance, before I can get into any business dealings, I would say I exercise a little bit more caution than the average person. I sometimes wonder if this might have held me back from pursuing certain opportunities. From a personal perspective, I do feel like men do take far bigger risks. I might be wrong or even biased with this take. I have had conversations about risks with my girlies and we all agree the reason it might seem that men might take bigger or more risks could be associated with the level of audacity they have in pursuing the things they want.
With regard to the above, I have found the following tips useful for anyone who would like to take risks.
Be audacious
Audacity is definitely what sets people apart as far as risk-taking is concerned. A couple of months ago, my in-law let me in on a deal about some piece of land that was being sold at quite an affordable price. He went ahead and bought it. I did a lot of girl math and at the end of the day, I chose the safer route and did not buy. I did lots of calculations. What stood out from our conversation later was, that he mentioned that sometimes with land, you buy, and you can liquidate later in case of anything. This has worked for him actually, and over the years he has taken lots of risks buying land that has earned him good returns. My lesson from his risk-taking journey has been, that you have to have enough audacity to pursue that which sets your heart on fire.
Exercise Caution
Risk-taking can have its fair share of positives and negatives. I have witnessed people winning big time because of a risk they took, and others lose everything they owned. It is therefore important to take caution. Ask yourself the most important questions such as what would be the returns from taking a certain risk, how does it affect other aspects of your day-to-day etc. For example, you would not want to risk say money for paying rent or school fees.
Failure is part of risk-taking.
Most of the time we don’t usually want to think that inevitably we might take a risk that does not give us returns. Failing is part of any risk-taking journey. If you are afraid of failure, you cannot take risks. Embrace failure and see it as a lesson. We win some we lose some.
Believe in your journey.
As you take risks, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader. Taking risks requires a certain amount of self-belief in the things you want to pursue. Affirm yourself in your own journey. This will carry you through the day-to-day challenges that may come with your risk-taking journey.
Put in the work.
Risk-taking requires you to put in the work. You have to go the extra mile in your pursuits. I remember spending so much time working on workshop content up to 3A.M when I started my company. I was constantly planning and reinventing and coming up with things that would make sense and align with our goals. I always believed in overdelivering, and quality was something I was not willing to compromise on. It paid off!
When to take risks.
Any day is a good day to take risks. Opportunities presented to us can also be another avenue to decide whether we want to take particular risks or not. As for me, anytime I feel uncomfortable with where I am at in life, I always know I am in a comfort zone, and I need to get moving.
Conclusion
Risk-taking is a necessity for our personal, business, professional or even day to day growth. It inevitably becomes part of who we are, and we need to embrace it. Are you afraid of taking risks? Do you think you should take more risks? Are you uncomfortable with where you are at in life? Take that risk today, you may never find out which doors you can unlock if you don’t.
Thanks for reading,
xoxo
