Successful People Think Differently About Risk, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO23

You ask, "What's going to happen if I take this risk?"  Andy Frisella asks, "What's going to happen if you DON'T take that risk?" According to the MFCEO, successful people think differently about risk.  They don't see it as something to be avoid, but embraced.

According to Andy Frisella, the only way to avoid coming to the end of your life and realizing that you wasted it is your willing to take risks.  In this episode, the MFCEO talks about what it means to risk, and why it’s absolutely essential for you to have a risk-taking mentality.

Successful people have a completely different mindset about risk

According to Andy, successful people don’t see risk as a thing to be avoided. They see it as a thing to be embraced. They actually see risk as the thing that PREVENTS bad things from happening: like maintaining the status quo, living a half-ass life, etc.  Facing a risk isn’t an obstacle to greatness. It’s an OPPORTUNITY for greatness.  They don’t ask, “What’s going to happen if I risk this?” They ask “What’s going to happen if I DON’T risk this?”

Careless Risk vs. Calculated Risk

Andy distinguishes between CARELESS risks and CALCULATED risks.  He's NOT telling you to just step out into the unknown, take a risk, without thinking about anything. That’s a careless risk. That’s just risking for the sake of risking. That’s fucking stupid.To be successful, you have to take CALCULATED risks.  To take a calculated risk, you have to:

• Really think about what it is you want to do
• Think about the consequences, the hard work involved
• Spend time thinking objectively about the value of your product or service
• Get a sound plan.  Not a perfect plan. A sound plan.
• Don’t worry about getting the approval of everybody. But maybe run it by a few people you trust for feedback.

Here’s the key: When you take a calculated risk, there are factors that are going to be beyond your control. There are things in the future that you can’t possibly know are going to happen. BUT YOU BETTER BE DAMN SURE you have thought about the factors you CAN control and you know the things you CAN KNOW. Otherwise, it IS a careless risk.

Further Thoughts On Risk

In this episode, Andy elaborates on these three basic principles:

• Risk should be embraced because it involves some sort of danger—and it’s only when you’re putting yourself in some kind of danger that life becomes an adventure.

• Risk involves testing yourself—and it’s only by testing ourselves that we can improve.

• Risk is always better than the alternative.

 Risk...Because Some Day You'll Die

Andy says some day you’re going to fucking die. He says, "I guarantee at that moment you won’t say, “Oh fuck, I risked too much in life.” But if you lived comfortably and half-ass, you will say, “Oh shit, I wasted my life. I am going to my grave with regret.”  Think about that.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE