Risk: It's Medicine, Not Poison

Not taking action is the only surefire way to stay the same forever.

Hi! I'm Holly, your entrepreneur pal who likes to get real and talk about tough stuff.

Can we have an honest conversation about taking risks?

Let's be clear — by "risk," I'm talking about weighing the cost and consequences of an action that has the potential to kickstart massive growth.

Disclaimer: I'm talking specifically to those of us who are balanced, reasonable, ambitious people who TEND to be a bit apprehensive of taking "risks" that have the potential to really get us to the next level, both personally and in business. Don't wear the shoe if it doesn't fit.

Sometimes the exponential growth we're after is JUST on the other side of our fear.

1. Calculated risk

Especially in the realm of entrepreneurship, being hell-bent on avoiding excessive risk really does have the potential to stagnate your growth.

Yep, of course I'm referring to calculated risk. THAT said, sometimes we swing too far in the other direction and mask our unhelpful fear by labeling it as being "reasonable."

It needs to be routine to check in with ourselves and really ask the hard question of whether our fear is genuinely in our best interest, or if we are fooling ourselves by calling our fear "being reasonable."

One of the most helpful tools for that is breaking down your options into two "paths." Lay out each option in terms of the cost and consequences to each, and make your decision from there.

Often, it comes down to the choice between avoiding the risk and staying the same, or embracing the risk and achieving exponential growth.

Not taking action is the only surefire way to stay the same forever.

2. Fear/anxiety just means you care

We often falsely assume that having anxiety as a response to something is some sort of "sign" that it's not the right move for us.

I get it, I'm calling my own self out here, too!

Thing is — anxiety isn't always a bad thing. Often, it just means you care... a lot! And sometimes the caring can go too far and becomes the very thing that holds us back.

In my experience as a classical pianist, I had to constantly remind myself of this when the overwhelming performance anxiety would kick in — everything was okay, I just cared a lot. You do not have to get the anxiety to completely disappear before moving forward.

You can shift that energy into motivation, excitement, adrenaline, whatever you want!

It's just crucial to remember that anxiety itself isn't always some "sign from above" that the step you're taking is wrong.

It's just part of the human experience.

Stop waiting until you're anxiety-free to make a move. That's a dead end. Do it scared.

3. What's the guarantee?

I get it. We often look for that (possibly false) sense of comfort by looking for some sort of guarantee before taking a calculated risk.

However, some things just can't be guaranteed, especially in entrepreneurship. And that's okay!

Remind yourself of what you ARE in control of, and loosen your grip on the rest.

What you ARE in control of:

• Your grit and determination to keep showing up for a long enough period of time that NOT reaching your goals becomes unreasonable

4. Building confidence

Confidence is built through pushing through fear, taking risks, and having that experience of, "oh, I'm actually fine" after taking that risk.

We often falsely assume that "confidence" is a state of mind that we have to search out and find, yet in reality, it's more like doing the thing that scares us enough times to where it doesn't anymore.

Fear isn't a reason to not doing something that we KNOW will lead to positive growth.

The confidence will come on the other side.

Do it scared.

5. Calculated risk to scale your biz

Investing in marketing is a perfect example of what I'm talking about here.

Every day I speak with business owners who are dealing with weighing out the cost and consequences (risk) of investing in marketing.

I've seen business owners push through that initial fear and have AMAZING results scaling their businesses.

Massive growth just might be right on the other side of the fear of making an investment in yourself.

BONUS: An existential take on risk:

Okay, this is a bit existential, BUT: sometimes it's healthy to ponder our finite existence as humans. We won't be around forever, so why wouldn't we embrace some calculated risks?!