Taking Risks: Why It’s Hard to Take Risks But Why You Should

Why is Taking Risks Important?

You need to take risks because taking a risk uncovers potential, just like the present moment uncovers the future.

By taking risks in life, you uncover your potential as the future reveals itself. A future that is newer and brighter is your potential… It has to be, because that is the only sort of future you will feel motivated to take on.

Therefore, taking risks can be the greatest motivational thing you will ever do in your life.

If you’re tired of playing it safe, then it’s probably because you want a brighter and better future. People tend to avoid risk because we are hardwired to fear loss more than we love gain, and I will prove it to you…

Actually, I am going to prove it for you. I am going to show you that a single idea can change the way you look at risk forever.

By the end of this article, you’ll see:

• That you need to take risks or else you will miss great opportunities for growth
• How much of a risk taker you really are
• What risk truly is; providing you with a perspective that can get you out of your comfort zone and toward your full potential

Risk Taking is All About Behaviour

Risk-taking is a behavior, and behaviors can be learned. Of the things that you have control over, you will only gain or lose as much as your behavior allows.

Some hold on to lost causes hoping to recapture what they lost. They find that they end up losing more.

Others let go of a good thing because they are afraid of losing it in the first place. They often find that the thing they let go of becomes their biggest regret.

Holding too long and letting go too soon happens more often than the setting of the moon, and it all begins with behavior.

Do You Hate to Lose More Than You Love to Win?

If you’ve never thought about that question, then you’re probably about to learn something very interesting about yourself.

Casinos in the U.S. have managed to make $48 billion in revenue from gamblers in 2022 alone, their very best year yet.  There is a reason why casinos are so successful, and it is because they understand something very important about human behavior:

People hate to lose more than they love to gain because losing hurts more than winning feels good; In fact, We have a sensitivity to anticipated loss that is twice more intense than anticipated gains.

So when presented with options, most people are more likely to take a risk to avoid losing something than to take a risk and gain something. (Are you one of those people? Stay tuned, there’s an experiment coming up soon).

If you ever see a casino giving free drinks and food to someone, watch that person carefully. They will offer that person free drinks and food so that they stick around longer. The Casino will do what it can to keep that person around long enough for them to win their money back, and it often works. They understand that people tend to lock in gains quickly for fear of losing what they have.

Conversely, they won’t bother doing anything if the person is losing, not only because they’ve already won their money, but because they are betting that the person will stick around to try and win back what they lost.

The house always wins! But what does this have to do with risk?

Your View on Taking Risks Was Shaped When You Were Just a Baby

It once happened that my two-year-old nephew wanted a Rubik’s cube that my seven-year-old niece was playing with. After crying to his mother, she managed to convince my niece to let the baby have the Rubik’s cube.

My nephew got the cube, and five seconds later, he proceeded to put it next to him while he continued to do other things; disregarding the cube completely. I thought it would be okay for me to give the toy back to my niece, but as I began to reach for the cube the boy started bawling his eyes out.

Gaining it didn’t mean much. The baby wasn’t even playing with it! losing it, however, felt like the end of the world.

Because we hate losing, our brains compensate by intensifying our aversion to loss, and this is why we avoid taking risks to gain something and are more willing to take risks to avoid losing something. We hate to lose things we might not even care about, and it goes way back to when you and I were just babies, and maybe even beyond that.

How Much of a Risk-Taker Are You?

let’s try a little experiment.

Imagine you have to choose between two options, which would you choose?

Now imagine you have to choose between these two options, again, which would you choose?  

If you chose options a and b respectively, then you have chosen what most people would. This is interesting because choosing a in the first question is the exact opposite behavior when choosing b in the second… It is a bias.

Most people are more likely to take a risk to prevent losing something than they are to take a risk and gain something. Just like the baby, losing something hurts more than winning feels good.

Whatever you choose, you might be surprised to know the result of your decisions.

What Are the Risks of Not Taking Risks?

You might be surprised to know that option AB is actually riskier because there’s a chance you will lose more, and make less.

• Options A and B: you have a 25% chance to make your guaranteed $250,000 (assuming you get lucky and lose nothing in the second part), but there’s a 75% chance that you will lose $750,000 (Your sure gain of $250,000 minus the $1 million if you don’t get lucky).

• Option B and A: You have a 25% chance to make $1 million, but there is a 75% chance that you will only lose $500,000 (Assuming you don’t make $1 million in the first part, you will only lose $500,000 if you picked a for the second part).
• Options A and A: You lose $250,000 (gain of $250,000 – $500,000) with no chance of winning anything

Options ba is equivalent to ab plus $250,000 (you would lose $250,000 less with ba), and you have a 25% chance of making $750,000 more ( ba’s $1 million is $750,000 more than ab’s sure gain of $250,000).

You can say that the question wasn’t fair because you did not know they would be related, but that’s the point: All decisions in life are related.

When we are presented with choices, our behavior shapes our decisions, and those decisions result in something.

By not taking risks to gain something and only taking risks when you fear losing, not only will you miss out on great opportunities, but you may also end up losing more than you anticipated.

How to Start Taking Risks

Like the experiment, avoiding risk only to end up in a riskier situation is pretty ironic.

The problem with irony is that you can spot it only after it’s too late. But a bias on the other hand is quite different. A bias can be spotted before a decision even happens.

To begin getting comfortable with taking risks in life, you first need to be aware of your biases, which hopefully, by now you are to a better degree.

Irony is a comedian, but the bias is a learner. Irony pokes fun at the bias until you show the irony up.

Biases don’t care about making sense. As far as your bias is concerned, your circumstance is a risky one when it functions under the bias. But if your circumstance is not risky, and you can just as easily take on more risk, then there is disunity between your real situation and the perceived one.

That’s why people lose more than they anticipate; because they don’t look at the situation for its reality, but only through the lens of their bias.

Be a learned comedian. Spot your biases, and then it’s easier to take a risk.

What Does Taking Risks Mean?

Risk does not mean loss; it means potential.

If you are tired of playing it safe, then this single idea can transform your life.

You take risks because potential remains uncovered just like the future, and by taking risks in life, you uncover that potential just as the future reveals itself.

• You risk pursuing your passion so that you can feel true to yourself
• You risk taking time off from work so that you can travel and experience the world
• You risk getting married and having children to build a relationship with people in a place you can call home
• You risk not making money to go to school so that you have more opportunities in the future

Why do people take risks?

Because we live in the present, and for the future. We make decisions, and develop ways of thinking, and the future unfolds based on them.

The future is potential, and so are you. Think of yourself as walking potential, and you’ll become a risk-taker.

-Adam Hamadiya