Companies Need Entrepreneurs Willing to Take Risks

Given the changes in the world economy, every day, there are more risk-averse companies and employees. However, risk-taking is an essential part of innovation, and key to the survival and success of a company.

Many of the entrepreneurs behind large companies today have lost jobs, fallen into bankruptcy, and had ideas that failed, before rebounding with great success. From Ben Franklin to Steve Jobs, all remarkable entrepreneurs have been applauded through the years for their ability to take risks and carry out high-impact ideas despite the difficulties they faced.

Risk aversion in companies

When companies or industries go into survival mode, their employees avoid taking risks as a way to avoid being laid off in case of failure. Growing businesses and those in crisis, the contrast in their approach to employees' creativity. Growing companies encourage the development of new ideas, in order to find business development opportunities. On the contrary, enterprises in a crisis make their employees focus on profit and perceive innovation as a source of costs that the company cannot afford. Ironically, companies where workers fail to take risks along the way often find themselves in a position where they need to go all-in on one new product or project, in order to survive.

Related post: Should Companies Invest in Innovation or Leaders?

Education a source of risk aversion

The current education system has a negative conception of failing. Students do not have the opportunity to do so without being punished for it. The reason why it is not surprising is that students, once at work are not able to take risks. However, there are methods by which we can compensate for this shortcoming in the system. For example, participating in research projects where the outcome is uncertain. Studies indicate that it encourages critical thinking and the ability to work under uncertainty. Likewise, we can put ourselves in unfamiliar situations, such as traveling abroad where the culture shock and a new language require us to develop the ability to overcome adversity.

Related post: Companies are Afraid of Innovation

How to take more risks and advance as a professional

The lack of professionals and entrepreneurs willing to take risks and take decisions creates great opportunities for those who strive to develop their capacity to lead daring ideas. These are some steps that will help you.

Look through the risk. Imagine the results you can get if you are successful. How would it look, taste, feel, and even smell? Focus on your goal and its benefits. This will help you realize what you would be missing if you backed out. Moreover, it will help you determine your motivators, those that will help you move forward.

Determine your obstacles. You probably already know why you have not taken the risk and what is stopping you. Otherwise think about it, should not be too difficult. In your mind, these obstacles can be seen as a major barrier impossible to surpass between you and your goal. What you need to do is divide this great barrier into small obstacles. By splitting, a large problem into several specific ones, you are able to deal more effectively with the problem, while you are capable of tracking your progress, and staying motivated.

Start small. Developing your risk-taking skills requires practice. Build self-confidence in order to gain more initiative to take risks. Start with small risks in your personal life: Go to places where you've never been, learn a new language, when going to a restaurant not only try to order something new, actually ask for it, change your hairstyle, etc. when you least expect it, you will be taking bigger risks.

Make Metal Rehearsal. Practice makes perfect. Whenever you are taking a risk picture the entire scenario, the actions that you perform step by step, with as much detail as possible, from beginning to end. Do it several times before taking action. Concentrate on the perfect scenario, and how should all happen, also anticipate negative variants and rehearse how you will solve them.

Finally:

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started” - Mark Twain