Paul Sloane asks two questions: what's the biggest risk that paid off for you, and what's the biggest risk that failed? He uses a bridge-playing analogy and stories about leaders learning from bad decisions to argue that taking risks builds momentum in life, relationships, and career.
Chapters
I'd like to ask you two questions, and I want you to think carefully about your answers and maybe consider them after this short video is finished. But the first question is this: What was the biggest risk that you took which paid off at any time in your life? Maybe you asked somebody out on a date, you quit a job that you didn't like, you started an entirely new career, you moved to a different city or country, but it worked. How do you feel about that decision now? Pretty good, I bet. Now here's the second question. What's the biggest risk you've taken in your life so far which failed? It didn't work. You were humiliated. You lost some money. Your career was set back. Things didn't work out. How do you feel about it? Well, you may regret it, and it— maybe it was very painful at the time, but let's face it, you survived. You learned some things from it. You came through it bruised but wiser. A great leader was once asked how come it was that he made so many good decisions, and he answered, it's because of my experience. And the interviewer said, where did you get that experience? He said, from all the bad decisions I made. And the point is leaders make decisions. They take risks. And you know, life isn't like a journey. It's not, it's not as though you get on a train and you head steadily forward to your destination. It's more like a game where you're presented with a variety of different situations and occasionally a chance comes up that you have to seize. Do you play bridge? If you play bridge, you might get bad hand after bad hand after bad hand, and then eventually you get a really good hand. And then you have to take a risk. You have to say, I'm going for a Grand Slam, and you have to play well and make it. And life's a bit like that. So if you're stuck in a rut with your life or your relationships or your career, take a risk. Move things forward. It might not work, but at least you've got some momentum. Take the risk. Play the game.
