Risk-Aware Does Not Mean Risk Averse
From time to time, I will have a conversation with a client about some aspect of their business that might open them up to legal liability. Some clients react by being grateful to know about the risk and then act; others respond by becoming fearful.
I would say that the former approach is the right one. Learn as much as you can about potential risks and act based on knowledge, not fear.
For whatever reason, it seems that business owners sometimes believe that when a lawyer (or another consultant, adviser, etc.) explains a risk to them, they are implicitly saying “no” to whatever course of action generates that risk. This is usually not the case.
Don’t take information about a given risk as advice to avoid that risk. The most that any lawyer can (or should) do is to make you, the business owner, aware of the upside and downside of any course of action. As the business owner, you are in control of the ship. Your lawyer is your navigator.
Ultimately, the business owner decides how you respond to a given risk.
The Difference Between Risk Awareness and Risk Aversion
Let’s put forward some off-the-cuff definitions of “risk awareness” and “risk aversion,” shall we?
