Quotes About Risk

A Timid Trapeze Artist Is a Dead Trapeze Artist

This Is a Manifesto About Starting Starting a project, making a ruckus, taking what feels like a risk. Not just "I'm starting to think about it," or "We're going to meet on this," or even "I filed a patent application. . . ." No, starting. Going beyond the point of no return. Leaping. Committing. Making something happen.

If you never fail, either you're really lucky or you haven't shipped anything.

Are you overinvesting (really significantly overinvesting) time and money so that you have a much greater chance of dominating a market? And if you don't have enough time and money, do you have the guts to pick a different, smaller market to conquer?

When you lead without compensation, when you sacrifice without guarantees, when you take risks because you believe, then you are demonstrating your faith in the tribe and its mission.

Real change rarely comes from the front of the line. It happens from the middle or even the back. Real change happens when someone who cares steps up and takes what feels like a risk. People follow because they want to, not because you can order them to.

We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. We need marketers who can lead, salespeople able to risk making a human connection, passionate change makers willing to be shunned if it is necessary for them to make a point. Every organization needs a linchpin, the one person who can bring it together and make a difference.

The secret of being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal. The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.

change is the first sign of risk.

If school is about postponing the day you have to stand up in front of the world and put yourself at risk, the resistance would like to stay there forever.

We're so obsessed about the risk of shining brightly that we've traded in everything that matters to avoid it.

Like the fox, we've been trained to stay inside the fence, because inside the fence is where it's safe—until it's too late.

We assume that what makes us comfortable also makes us safe.

Those places that felt safe—the corner office, the famous college, the secure job—aren't. You're holding back, betting on a return to normal, but in the new normal, your resistance to change is no longer helpful.

The analysis, based on past events, certainly seems sound. But following your instincts is the only way you're going to do something unsound.

Given the choice between building a thriving, profitable business with a niche and a really boring product and putting your life savings into an intensely competitive business where you're likely to fail but the product is cool, the experienced bootstrapper will pick the former every time. If you find an industry filled with wannabe entrepreneurs with a dollar and a dream, run away and look for something else!

The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.

Those who fear risk also begin to fear movement of any kind.

The act of trying to guarantee the success of an innovation is almost certain to make it less likely that it will succeed.

Apostar no significa estar en lo cierto; significa pasar a la acción.

It's easier for investors and bosses to spend time and money going after a proven market, even though proven markets are the hardest to break into.)

Are you overinvesting (really significantly overinvesting) time and money so that you have a much greater chance of dominating a market? And if you don't have enough time and money, do you have the guts to pick a different, smaller market to conquer? Once you're doing those things, then you get it.

It's not time," "Take it easy," "Wait and see," "It's someone else's turn"—none of these stalls are appropriate for a leader in search of change. There's a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late. The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth.

The New York Times was offered a deal with Amazon during the 1990s. It would have transformed the economics of the paper and delivered billions of dollars in revenue over time. According to former CFO Diane Baker, senior management turned it down. They were worried that they would upset Barnes & Noble, which at the time was a big advertiser. Management had nostalgia for a future with steady increases in their current business, and felt threatened by a radical shift in that future.