Taking risks is scary, whether you’re going all-in during a friendly game of poker or quitting your long-time career to pursue one of your promising business ideas. Most people tend to avoid risks when possible, because inaction is often safer than action, but most successful people will tell you they got to where they are because they were willing to take risks no one else was — whether that was developing a product nobody else thought would work or investing a sum of money everyone else thought was crazy. Risk-taking is almost synonymous with entrepreneurship. To start and support your own business, you’ll have to put your career, personal finances and even your mental health at stake says Aman.
For most, the prospect of making your own decisions and being in charge of your own destiny is worth it. But if you’re going to be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to be prepared for the risks and challenges that come with it. When you’re starting your own business, it’s going to be risky by default, because there’s no guarantee you’ll succeed. You need to take some risks if you want your business to thrive. While you can be irresponsible in your risk-taking and need to be careful, that doesn’t mean you should avoid any risky investments or ideas. You need to embrace risk as an entrepreneur, as long as you do so in a responsible and informed way.
Why you should be willing to risk your business in order to pursue something new?
You will no longer have to ask “what-if”?
Founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos has been quoted as saying, “I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this…I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that. I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. And I knew that would haunt me every day.”
Nobody can really be sure if risks will pay off, no matter how calculated they may be. But this should not stop you from taking risks. If you want your business to succeed, risks are necessary. According to a quote by Frederick Wilcox, “Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”
Risk helps to distinguish between leaders and followers
Generally speaking, entrepreneurs take risks as it allows them to distinguish themselves from their competitors. In the competitive business environment that exists today, those who are willing to risk position themselves as leaders, while others get left behind. If you take a minute to think of a leader who you consider successful, chances are that they changed the way things were done for the better, and put themselves on the line during the process. This does not mean that all leaders take major risks on a regular basis, but it is safe to say that all leaders have taken at least one risk in their career which has helped them achieve their current position.
You’ll always learn from it
You’ll learn something valuable when you take a risk, regardless of whether you succeed or fail. Even if you fail with your risk, learn from the experience. Identify where you went wrong and what could have been done differently, then use this knowledge the next time you take a calculated risk. If your risk succeeds, you’ll have your success and also understand what worked well and helped you reach a new goal for your business. Do not let failure get you down; it’s a natural part of being an entrepreneur and it just means you need to keep working hard.
Aman Saha makes sure to understand consumer needs and desires in order to define new products to be developed. He says, “It all started out of passion and here I am enjoying each and every process of the work I do. Take a risk and keep testing, because what works today won’t work tomorrow, but what worked yesterday may work again. Innovation needs to be part of your culture.