Risk More by Risking Less

27Jan/100

When you're depending on every last dollar it becomes very hard to risk any of them, even one. Yet, every successful business man and woman will tell you that in order to succeed in the business world you must take risks and take them often. This bring up an interesting dichotomy, and one that I have had to work my way through over the past 6 or so months.

What happened was that I was working full time, safe, secure, steady pay, not much to worry about. This allowed me to take a few business risks, build a software program and give it the time (and money) it needed to grow at it's own pace. However, over the summer I decided that I wanted to try to spend more time on my businesses, develop a few more ideas that I have been kicking around, and really make a go at being a full time entrepreneur.

What I found was that as things did not pick up with my new business, as my income slowed way down and as my savings began to disappear, I stopped taking risks. I could not put resources into things that would in turn bring me profit because I was too worried about paying the rent. It's crazy, but even though I had way more time and could expend way more energy on my own businesses I was still lacking a critical piece, the resources and ability to take risks.

It's a very interesting concept, think of it, when you have more (in my case by working a full time job), you are risking less in your personal life. By risking less in your personal life and finances you are able to risk more in your business life and finances which in turn will provide more for your personal life. Pretty cool! I'd be interested to hear what others think about this and hear some risk-related business stories from you guys.