Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go – T. S. Elliot

Picture yourself clinging to a large wall of rock, the points of your shoes and the very tips of your fingers the only connection you have with the cold hard surface. Beneath you, the ground looms 300m below. Gravity envelopes you and does its damnedest to pull you down. One slip from a sweaty palm, one tiny rock peeling away from the wall, and nothing will prevent you from falling. There are no harnesses, no ropes and no safety nets. You’re all alone up here; the only way to get out of this situation is to keep climbing. There’s a long way to the top…

If you’re anything like me, just imagining that situation is enough to make your palms sweat. Yet people do this type of thing all the time.. for ‘fun’. This is what Alex Honnold does, day in day out. He’s a free solo climber, meaning he climbs large rock walls with no support and no equipment. No question it’s one of the craziest pursuits you could possibly undertake. Some serious Kasparov-like concentration is required as is a Zen-monks propensity to remain cool under pressure. Climbing like this is taking a serious risk, one that many would consider completely unacceptable. Alex doesn’t see it this way…

Fred Smith was an undergraduate at Yale University when he wrote a paper for an economics class proposing an overnight delivery service. In this model there would be only one carrier; responsible for a piece of cargo from pick-up through delivery (very unorthodox at the time). He got a grade of “C” for that paper, the professor nothing: “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.”

Despite his professor’s lack of encouragement, Smith held on to the idea and founded a company called Federal Express in the early 1970s. By 1973, the company had already run into financial troubles. Beset by rapidly inflating fuel prices and other costs, FedEx was bleeding money. At its low point, the company had $5000 to its name, nowhere near enough to continue operating. Their planes needed fuel by the following Monday or the venture was dead on the ground.

Fred sought loans from various sources but was denied at each turn. Not one to be dissuaded, Smith took the $5000 and flew to Las Vegas. He proceeded to go on a Black Jack bender that weekend, gambling with the remaining company funds. By Monday FedEx had $32,000 in its bank account, enough to cover the fuel for their planes and to continue operating a few days more.

This was all that was required. Shortly afterwards, Smith successfully managed to raise $11 million to keep the company afloat and, by 1976, Federal Express made its first profit of $3.6 million. The rest as they say, is history. Today, FedEx is estimated to be worth in the vicinity of $25-$35 billion, Smith himself being worth a casual $2 billie.

Fred had literally gambled with the future of his company. Surely that is the definition of taking a risk? Like Alex above, Fred doesn’t see it that way. “What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn’t have flown anyway.” Maybe we need to look at the concept of risk a little differently..

Defining Risk

Both Alex and Fred maintain they weren’t in fact, taking a risk doing what they did. Well, the definition would say otherwise..

“A situation involving exposure to danger, harm or loss.”

Doesn’t sound too good does it… Why would anyone do that? Well, what this definition fails to mention is the potential upside from exposing yourself to such a situation. Fred Smith was practically at a point where there was nothing to lose and everything to gain. Sure, he could have walked out of the casino with his pockets $5,000 lighter, but his company would’ve still gone out of business. In other words, there was tremendous upside with very little downside.

Risk is also completely subjective. What appears risky to you may not actually be so…

When asked if he feels what he does is dangerous, Alex answered like this; “What I do is very high consequence, but I don’t think it’s particularly risky. The odds of me actually falling are very low… (non-climbers) don’t understand the preparation and the training, and how far in my comfort zone I am with most of the climbs I’m doing. What I do makes total sense to me and is easily understandable…”

“So many people condemn me for risk taking, but I find it sort of hypocritical because everybody takes risks. Even the absence of activity could be viewed as a risk. If you sit on the sofa for your entire life you’re running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer. I could be condemning those people, saying you’re running up health care costs and ruining my insurance coverage, and that’s super annoying to me. It’s all a matter of choosing the amount of risk you’re willing to accept, with open eyes. I wonder if people that hate on risk-taking are as intentional in their choices as I am. How many people are choosing to live in a way that best suits their values and best fulfills them?”

We don’t see driving as risky for example, because we’ve been doing it so much for so long. Yet every day multitudes of people die behind the wheel. Alex claims he has spent more time climbing than driving; what he does on the wall comes more instinctively than when he’s driving a car. What is risky to you, may not be risky to everyone.

You see practically everything we do in life requires risk; some is just at a different level to others. Certainly to achieve anything, risks need to be taken.

You gotta risk it, to get the biscuit

Simply put; risk=reward. We grow by pushing outside our comfort zones. This involves a certain degree of risk.

Want to chat up that hottie at the bar? You’re opening yourself up to the risk of rejection.

Audition for your dream of being a movie star? You’re taking the risk of being laughed at.

Trying to make it as a stand-up comic? There’s a risk no-one will laugh.

Starting up a revolutionary business project? If you fail, you’re risking becoming the object of ridicule.

Want to get to the top of that mountain? Well, there’s a risk you won’t come back…

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” -Hunter S. Thompson

Humanity wouldn’t be at the point we are at today if our predecessors had shrunk in the face of risk. Homeostasis is our natural state, the level of proficiency required just to get by in a particular endeavor. This could be exercise, playing a musical instrument or selling houses as a career. Most are happy to live in the world of “good enough.” To move beyond this state requires us to push ourselves, to step outside our comfort zones. It almost certainly requires risk. To put it simply: any kind of significant success or personal growth requires risk.

What Risk Taking is not

There’s a large misconception surrounding risk. Many tend to view big risk-takers as reckless, brash and arrogant, throwing caution to wind with a fuck-the-consequences mentality. That’s rarely the case.

Most risk takers plan and strategise because they have so much at stake. As Alex Honnold mentions, it has taken years of slowly expanding his comfort zone and skill level to get to the point he’s at now. He didn’t start off climbing these walls without a rope, it’s taken a long-term measured approach. The majority of professional risk-takers are exactly the same. There are exceptions of course..

Types of Risk Takers

Risk Avoider: Insures house against meteor damage.

Risk averse: Generally doesn’t look too favourably upon risk. Puts savings into a term deposit account, would only consider blue-chip stocks, doesn’t travel outside of the developed world but may occasionally splash out $20 on red if they’re feeling adventurous.

Risk Takers: Pursues adventure sports: skydiving, bungee jumping, invests in start-ups. The typical entrepreneur. Both Alex Honnold and Fred Smith belong in this category.

Maniacs: Throw all caution to the wind in the pursuit of glory. These are the ‘exceptions’ I mentioned previously. Evel Knievel was perhaps the classic example of an extreme risk taker. That motherfucker had no regard for his own life, supposedly fracturing 433 bones over his career (a world record). On the other end of the spectrum, I’d include Elon Musk in this category. After making $180 million from the sale of PayPal, he put $100 million in Space X, $70 million in Tesla and $10 million into Solar City. He claims he then had to “borrow money for rent”. Keep in mind; these were all industries where nobody had made money before. It was essentially throwing money into a black hole. That is risk.

The Criticism of Risk-Takers

I’ll be honest, this whole article came about as a reaction to a barrage of criticism on social media. Not directed towards me for a change, but a friend of mine. A flood of comments criticising and chastising her because she had done something that affected literally no-one but herself. I’ve seen this situation far too often as of late and it’s a little infuriating. It certainly resonated with me; time and time again I have been asked why I’m doing the things I’m doing, what’s the sense in taking those risks…

Here’s a word of advice for all of you in the same boat: If someone criticises you for taking what they would deem ‘unnecessary’ risks; instead of reacting negatively, just step back for a moment and put yourself in their shoes. These are individuals who have likely maintained a bubble of protection throughout their lives in some way. They see extreme consequence from deviating. When they criticise or push their opinion on you, they may actually have the best of intentions. They may not want to see you fall or be mocked. They don’t realise they are doing something far worse. They are holding you back, preventing you from reaching your potential.

The ridiculous thing is that much of this criticism is coming from Gen Y’ers… That’s right, the young population; the ones usually holding a reputation for being brash and bold are the ones towing the line. Have we completely lost our propensity for risk? If so, that’s certainly not a positive thing.

I wrote an article recently titled How to live a life without regrets. It examined the main regrets people had at the end of their lives. One of the biggest regrets of those on their deathbeds was not taking enough risks. Whether that was pursuing their passion, allowing themselves to love or making a big career move, their lack of action came back to haunt them in the end.

By playing it safe you’re also taking a risk. The risk that one day, you may regret those opportunities you missed. You may wish you’d gone for higher ground, rather than treading the worn path. To pass on the advice from my world-wise grandmother; Take those risks now, while you’re young.