Quotes About Risk

But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.

In other words, people hate losing $100 more than they like winning $100. This, of course, means loss aversion is a greater motivator of buying decisions than potential gains. In

It's true that while ambition creates fear, it also creates the story.

I found myself wanting even better stories. And that's the thing you'll realize when you organize your life into the structure of story. You'll get a taste for one story and then want another, and then another, and the stories will build until you're living a kind of epic of risk and reward, and the whole thing will be molding you into the actual character whose roles you've been playing.

comes from Hollywood. When a screenwriter writes a film, she must also write a one-sentence description of the screenplay that makes investors want to take a risk on the story. After that story is turned into a full-length feature, that same one-liner is used to get you to go see the film.

1.    A one-liner         2.    A website or landing page.         3.    A lead-generating PDF         4.    An email nurture campaign         5.    An email sales campaign

fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life. — Donald Miller, A Million Miles In a Thousand Years (? Thomas Nelson Inc; 33265th edition, January 1, 2009)

writer and story scholar James Scott Bell calls "doorways of no return."1

The point at which your customer is asked to make a risky decision. The two main reasons customers do not place orders are because:         1.    The brand never asked them for the sale, or         2.    The brand asked them for a sale too early.

The less expensive the product, the more likely they are to impulse buy, which means fewer touches. But the more expensive the product, the more they will need to hear from you before they will take a risk.

Section 2: The Stakes

Life is a game of statistics. There are no guarantees, but the more positive effort you put in, the more likely you will be to win.

Perhaps one of the reasons I've avoided standing on the point toward the horizon is the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose.

Stories live and die on a single question: What's at stake? If nothing can be gained or lost, nobody cares.

If there is nothing at stake in a story, there is no story. Likewise, if there's nothing at stake in whether or not I buy your product, I'm not going to buy your product. After all, why should I?

This is the Failure section. Stories love tension. A story without stakes is no story at all. For example, let me tell you a story and you try to figure out how we can make the story a little better:

A story doesn't really pick up until the hero needs to disarm a bomb, win someone's heart, defeat a villain, or fight for their emotional or physical survival.

We don't bring up the negative stakes enough and so the story we're telling falls flat. Remember, if there are no stakes, there is no story.

people hate losing $100 more than they like winning $100. This, of course, means loss aversion is a greater motivator of buying decisions than potential gains.

in certain situations, people are two to three times more motivated to make a change to avoid a loss than they are to achieve a gain.2

In order to ease our customers' concerns, we need to place large stones in that creek. When we identify the stones our customers can step on to get across the creek, we remove much of the risk and increase their comfort level about doing business with us. It's as though we're saying, "First, step here. See, it's easy. Then step here, then here, and then you'll be on the other side, and your problem will be resolved.

Plans can take many shapes and forms, but all effective plans do one of two things: they either clarify how somebody can do business with us, or they remove the sense of risk somebody might have if they're considering investing in our products or services.

PERHAPS ONE OF the reasons I've avoided having a clear ambition is that second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose. It's always been this way.

And that's the thing you'll realize when you organize your life into the structure of story. You'll get a taste for one story and then want another, and then another, and the stories will build until you're living a kind of epic of risk and reward, and the whole thing will be molding you into the actual character whose roles you've been playing.