Risk

My wife was looking for suitable business partners to embark on a business venture together. So we talked to some of friends whom we think have great potential to work and grow together.

Most of them have these first reactions:

Is it safe?

Is the return-of-investment guaranteed?

Oh, I have seen these being done by others already. There are a lot of these products in the market. Is the market saturated?

Is it competitive?

Having read the books by Robert T. Kiyosaki, we know people’s core values can be divided into that of poor, middle-income and rich.

In decreasing degree, the poor and middle-income core values are that of safety and security, whilst the rich focus on risk and reward.

Coming from poor and middle-income families, we ‘inherited’ the core values of the poor and middle-income people. It took us years of education and experience to realize what is limiting us. There after we commit ourselves to change and still in the process of changing.

Ann Landers’ poem:

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk rejection.

To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow, or love.

Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.

Only a person who takes risks is free.