Be scared and don’t take risk

Your guide to save your career and your life.

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I was recently listening to an interview of Jim Koch at How I Built this. Jim mentioned an interesting concept — difference between “risky” and “scary”. It is a not a new concept but often overlooked in our daily life.

There is a difference between taking a risk and scared about doing something. We oftentimes consider leaving a steady job to start own business as risky. Going to another country to take up a job offer seems risky. Sometimes moving to a new department or a new project within the company seems like a risky move.

But are those risky decisions?

Let’s look at the two photos:

The first one is of kids playing on a frozen lake. Beautiful sunny morning, clear blue sky….a perfect day.

Does the situation look scary or risky to you?

Now look at the following photo:

This is a photo of Rappel Jumping. A person climbing down a steep fall. It does look more dangerous and scary compared to the first photo. Playing on a frozen lake, on a sunny day as summer approaches can not be more dangerous? Does it?

Let us dig a bit deeper.

Climbing down a slop or jumping off a roof with a rappel rope attached is much less risky than playing on a frozen lake. The rappel rope can take the weight of a car and with proper harness. The chance of anything going wrong is unlikely.

Scary? Yes. Risky? Hardly.

But how about the first photo?

Every year, many people succumb to serious injury and even death while playing on a frozen lake. The ice has started melting, water is freezing beneath the surface and at any point the ice may be too thin to take the weight. There is a high possibility that one may end up plunging in freezing cold water. Have hypothermia (and yes, hypothermia is bad, Read about it here).

Many times, we consider things that are scary as risky and thus do not take actions. Other times, we fail to understand the risk in a situation and move ahead. Life is full of such situations.

Take another example. You are deciding what to study in college. Your parents want you to follow one of traditional disciplines. Taking those courses seem to be safe. But in the long run, if you are not passionate about the discipline, you have taken a risky path. A path that will lead to a life of unfulfillment.

We are sometimes comfortable at our job. We have been doing the same work for many years, colleagues respect us for our dependency. We come to office, do the job, go back. Everything happens like a clockwork. No surprises. No uncertainty. We enjoy the certainty of our role and the month-end steady pay check. Are you afraid? Scared? No, you are not. You like the routine and stability.

But, you know what, you are in a risky situation. Whenever your role is not evolving and you are not facing new challenges, you are making yourself redundant. In a company the roles that get eliminated first are the roles that falls into “routine” category. The people who lose their job first are the people who has stopped learning. Whenever you find yourself in a role for too long doing the same thing, consider moving out. The concept of life- long employment is gone. Average employment length is reducing dramatically. Average rate of jobs getting eliminated stands at one of the highest rate. You are in a risky situation if you are in a job too long and are not learning and doing something challenging.

The following charts highlight some of the challenges in job market. The job growth is in a declining mode. Jobs like Bank clerks or cashiers are the most vulnerable out there. The growth in wages are directly proportional to the skill set of individuals.

The same is true for an organization. One of the reasons most of the large companies get disrupted is that they have been successful in the past. It is the curse of success. Success results to a “proven” way of doing things. Business models, organization processes and technology that have worked. These companies want to avoid the scary path of changing culture, processes and technology. They continue the paths of certainty — the most risky thing to do in today’s world.

How about doing the scary things? The things that will make your heart jump to your throat, like jumping off a cliff (with a rope attached). What will it look like? How will it change your life? How will it change the organization?

Consider the person doing a steady role for years without change. Now consider another person who is already pushing the edges. He is always trying something new. He takes up projects no one wants to take. He goes to markets/geographies no one wants to explore. If you are that person, you are on for a treat because the world needs you! And your company loves you! You are on a constant learning journey, helping your company growing in new areas. And when it comes to cut jobs, you are a valuable resource. Even if your company goes bankrupt, with your skills, you will get into a new job. What seemed like “risky” to many, were actually the safe option for you.

Were you scared when you were taking up completely new projects? Of course you were. That is all too normal. But because you were ready to be afraid and step out of your comfort zone, you have been walking on the less risky road. And the person who was avoiding risk, has actually been walking on the risky one…

Look at the following chart of skills needed in 2020. Our world is becoming connected, machines are becoming smarter, people are living longer. In a world with massive changes, the skills that will make you apart is the capability to think in adaptive way. To be able to make sense of uncertainties. To work remotely across cultures and across functions. And the way to develop all these skill sets is to do things that are scary. That is the only way to learn in the new world.

The same is true for corporates. We have seen large corporates that have worked out the “success” formula. They are printing money in the process. They are not interested to test the “risky” option of launching new products. Because that may actually eat away their current core business. But by not doing so, they end up getting completely disrupted and taken over by startups. The examples are many. Large corporates that avoid doing scary things, are in the highest risk of mortality.

Ok….so what a man(woman) to do? How do you push yourself to get scared? Three ways:

1. Develop a process: Whenever you face a scary situation, approach it in a methodical way. There is a fascinating TED talk given by Chris Hatfield. He went blind during a space mission. The talk explains how he dealt with the scary situation by following a clear method. One of the things astronauts do is to practice for all sorts of surprises. This is a key part of their preparation. It is a perfect example of how a process based approach can help you prepare for different scary events.

Whether in a space mission or in life, if you have the discipline of practice, you can survive any scary situation.

2. Acknowledge the feeling: Nelson Mandela famously said:

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Everyone gets scared. The people who seem to have extraordinary courage are not gifted with extra powers. They are just more attuned with the feelings and learned to live with it. So know that you are not alone. Do not hide from fear but embrace it. Acknowledge the feeling and learn to live with the fear of unknown. As you practice, you will develop a strong fortitude to address fear.

3. Imagine the worst: What is the worst that could happen? One of the things that we learn over time is that the worse things usually don’t materialize. Stoicism is becoming mainstream in modern psychology. It is an ancient roman philosophy practiced by Roman Emperors like Seneca. One of the practice in stoicism is to start everyday with a imagining the worst case scenario. As you prepare yourself for the worst, you become ready to face any scary situation.

Be scared and be prepared.

Want to know more on how to get prepared? I am giving away a FREE book on making decisions and corporate innovation. Go here.

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