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Newsletter August 27, 2010 The Road To Success Involves Taking Risks |
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Carpe Diem! Seize the day! That call first resonated with me when I saw one of my favourite all time films, Dead Poet's Society. Many years on now, I see one successful person after another citing the taking of risks and the seizing of opportunities in careers and business as very important ingredients of success. So the feature article in this newsletter is about taking risks. The most important soft skills for success are the ones about managing ourselves. Taking risks requires us to take charge of the fears within us that prevent us seizing the day and seizing the opportunities that are there for us. Remember that successful people do what unsuccessful people fear to do. 
Maree Harris. PhD.
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The Road To Success Involves Taking Risks. What one thing would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? In 1994, a young man, Jeff Bezos, had a gut feeling that the internet was going to be big and thought he could be part of it. In July 1995 he launched Amazon.com to sell books online. It was an idea whose time had come because the business grew incredibly fast. Eighteen months later, Amazon.com had $16 million US in sales. He took the company public in 1997. In 1999 he began the process of adding more product areas. The growth has continued. It is now the world's biggest online retailer with three times as many sales as its nearest rival. In 2009, in the midst of the global economic crisis, Amazon.com increased its annual sales by 28% from the previous year with net sales of $24.51 billion. Why am I telling you this? What does it have to do with soft skills and what we are about here? Plenty. It's about the amazing things that can happen when someone is prepared to take a risk and follow through. It's about trusting intuition and gut feelings. More importantly, it's about trusting ourselves. Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com not knowing whether it would succeed or not. There was no precedent. It was Robert Ronstadt who discovered in his work that those who built successful businesses and careers had one unique thing about them - they had the courage and faith to launch their businesses, to take risks in advancing their careers, with no guarantees of success. This is what risk taking is about - no guarantees of success. It doesn't mean, however, that the risk isn't calculated and well thought through. Big Career and Business Risks. For example:
For example:
Some would argue that taking risks is more about developing strategic skills than developig interpersonal, communication and people skills, soft skills in other words. Strategic skills are important in implementation. Without highly developed soft skills, however, success is unlikely. So what are these soft skills that are so important in taking risks? They are the skills of self-management and self-mastery, those concerned with managing yourself.
When You Fear Taking Risks, What Do You Do? When you are challenged to take a risk, there is usually something in the "risk" that deep down really excites you. It is often something that you really would like, but dare not attempt to achieve, make happen or claim for yourself. There is a part of you that dares not dream that it may be possible. There is another part of you that says you would fail anyway. 1. Explore the risk from an emotional point of view. There is no risk in doing that much ( or maybe there is for some people!). If you don't, you are denying and suppressing something deep inside you that is very important to you. You are not even giving yourself the opportunity to see if it may be possible. Ask yourself:
4. Step back for a while and let yourself process what you have worked through about the risk. 5. After you have given yourself time to consider the risk, make a decision - yes or no. If you have moved through this process being open and honest with yourself, your "yes" or "no" will be confident and free from the fear and anxiety that was there at the beginning. You will know, without doubt, you have made the right decision for now. That doesn't mean that at some time in the future you may not revisit this. The risk content next time will be far less because of the work you have done this time. If, however, having gone through this process, you are still anxious, worried and fearful, then it may be that there are "things" blocking you that will continue to create obstacles for you in achieving what you want for your life. You may find it very helpful to talk through with an objective third person who can help you discover and remove those blockages. "I am frightened of taking risks, but have hopes and dreams that I'll never achieve unless I learn to overcome my fears. Where do I start?" 1. Start small. Take small risks first because every time you take a risk you become more and more confident in yourself and less and less afraid of doing so. If you don't at first succeed, it's not so devastating if the risk is small. For example, you may have met someone at a networking event. You would like to maintain contact, build a relationship and have this person as part of your professional network. You have been holding off making the phone call to invite him/her for a coffee because of the fear of rejection. Take action - make the call. If the person makes excuses and gives the impression he/she does not want to meet you, don't take it personally. Work through your feelings about it, let go and move on. If you don't, you accumulate more fear about taking risks in the future. 2. Get a coach or mentor to support you. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Today's Tip Success = Self-discipline, Staying Focussed and No Multi-Tasking. Every day, select the most important thing you have to do that day. When you get to work, discipline yourself to immediately begin that task. Stay with it until it is completed. Remain focussed. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by email beeps, extra coffee breaks, new ideas that come into your head that take you to Google, something you remembered from yesterday. Keep bringing yourself back to the task at hand. Obviously you will get interruptions, but after you have attended to those return to your important task for the day. If that important task is all you achieve that day, you will feel very good about yourself.
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