Gotta Risk/Invest Big to Win Big
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing quickly, the only strategy guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” ~ Mark Zuckerberg
We’ve all heard the same advice about gambling. You can’t win big unless you bet big, right? Sure, it’s true, and so is the inverse. You bet big and you can lose big. No gamble at all is the surest way to make sure you don’t end up in the red.
Except that’s not true in business. Consistently, the businesses finding themselves in the red are there because they’re stuck in a rut. Because they refuse to “change with the times.” Because “this is the way we’ve always done it.” Because they refuse to gamble (tell me the difference between “gamble” and “invest”).
When I stop to think about it, I have to credit a great deal of my current professional success to the fact that I possess the ability to hop into a situation with my clients and think entirely outside of the box in which they’ve find themselves “trapped”. Often, I make a new suggestion that is met with a WHOLE bunch of hesitation.
“But, but…we’ve NEVER done that before. We’ve ALWAYS done it this way!”
“Yep. That’s why nothing is changing for you. If it didn’t work last time, what makes you think it will work this go around?”
Note: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Want to stay just where you are? Great, just keep doing what you’ve been doing! It’s no different than training your body in the realm of exercise, right? If you run the same distance at the same speed each day, you don’t make any gains. What’s more than that: you start burning less and less calories on your run, as your body gets more efficient.
Your brain and your voice are muscles too. Don’t challenge them and you won’t myelinate new pathways, you won’t increase your range or strength or influence. “Use it or lose it,” right?
Your business, your team, is no different. If you decide not to “gamble” (read: “invest”) with your business or your message, not only do you get stuck in that rut, you also risk having your team leave you for work that they find more personally fulfilling. Because growth and achievement are highly motivating to us humans.
Woah. Does that mean if we don’t invest (“gamble”) in regards to business and people and values, we ONLY stand to lose?
The only strategy guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
Ask for more.
You deserve it.