If You Are Waiting To Be Successful To Take Risks, You Will Always Play Safe!
News Flash: Success Doesn’t Change Who You Are!
So, you are a budding filmmaker who has a unique vision that might not appeal to the masses. You have been advised to make a ‘massy’ film first and once you become successful, you have been told, you can go all out and make films that you ACTUALLY want to make. Or you are a writer who wants to write a book on Philosophy but you are instead writing a murder mystery because that will attract more eyeballs. Now, there is nothing wrong with doing these things and sometimes you do need to walk this path to survive. The only problem is in your belief that you will take risks once you become successful. That’s highly unlikely.
If you are unable to take risks when you are a nobody, then, most probably, you will not take a risk when you will become a hotshot.
That’s because success increases the stakes. When you are a nobody, there is absolutely nothing to lose. When you are successful, you worry about losing whatever you have achieved, even if you have not done what you wanted to do, to achieve that success. A person who now has a great reputation and a good amount of money in his/her/their bank account would try his/her/their best to protect them, no matter what. Our first instinct is to always hold on to what we have and play safe — even if we have achieved a lot in life. In fact, the more you achieve, the less likely you are to take risks because you become addicted to your reputation and the security it offers.
Success doesn’t really change who you are; in fact, it reveals who you are. If you have been risk-averse all your life, success will only magnify it.
A person who is at the bottom of the corporate ladder might think that she will speak her mind in meetings once she has a certain amount of power and position in the organization. But once she does have the power and position, she might feel insecure about expressing what she truly feels because if she upsets the authority or makes an unpopular choice, she might lose the power and position. That’s perhaps the reason why a lot of successful companies, after a period of time, stop innovating and stick to a formula. They end up buying or investing in startups that are doing exciting work — startups take risks and that’s something successful companies find hard to do. Very rarely do we find companies that dare to put their reputations on the line and attempt to do something completely different.
Habits, beliefs, patterns, and personality traits are strongly ingrained in our minds. Expecting success to change someone’s character or persona is unrealistic. An unorganized person will not transform into an organized one, just because he is now successful. An unethical person won’t suddenly become ethical, just because she is now successful. Similarly, if you are chronically unhappy with life, it is highly unlikely that success, marriage, or having children will make you happy. If you are anxious about not having enough money, having money might not solve the problem because the anxiety might transform into your insecurity of losing it (Haven’t we all wondered why some rich people are still greedy despite having all the wealth in the world?). Because you have spent a lifetime creating patterns — expecting the patterns to dissolve, instantly, because of an external event is wishful thinking at its best.
If you think that building a safety net before taking a risk is important, you might need to rethink! This kind of thought process puts the onus on an external change to change who you are. While that does happen sometimes, external changes mostly reveal who you really are instead of changing who you are.
If you are hiring someone, judge that person by who they are — their beliefs, patterns, personality, etc. Because who they are will determine how they will handle success or failure. Success/ Failure by itself won’t change them, it will only reveal their true selves. Expect these beliefs and patterns to continue and magnify when failure or success knocks on their door. If this person doesn’t wait for someone to give her permission to lead, doesn’t need an official title of a ‘leader’, and takes ownership without anyone telling her, then she will thrive in a leadership role. If this person is heavily dependent on an external force to bring a change in his life, chances are that he won’t be proactive despite life blessing him with positive external changes.
