Risking without failing – sounds like a nice option. Where do I sign up? How would your risk profile change if you were assured you could not fail? Significantly, no doubt.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece dated yesterday, former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt makes a persuasive case for updating regulation of the financial markets. His core argument is “when people take risks and don’t anticipate failure, they take greater risks and the resulting failure becomes far more damaging.”
It may be the dark side of the risk-taking equation, but the option of failure is critical to risking intelligently. While intelligent risk-taking is all about risking wisely and judiciously so as to maximize the chances of an acceptable outcome, the specter of failure is the source of the discipline that fuels the process. If the option of failure is gone, why bother to be intelligent about the process?
Risk-taking failure: to be respected, acknowledged and avoided.
