There are lots of one-hit wonders out there who made it big by speculating on currencies, selling a ridiculous app for billions, or stealing social network ideas from their friends.
Unfortunately, these people are often held up as models of expert risk-taking when, in fact, they might have done little more than win on a big gamble.
Truly successful people, on the other hand, are experienced and adept at taking risk.
In fact, it would be more accurate to say that successful people pursue opportunities only once they know the limits of the risks they take.
That's less sexy sounding than navigating a career like a bungee-jumper or falling in love on the Titanic, but it has teeth: Successful people keep on succeeding, and it appears they do so by taking risk in at least these five ways:
1. By keeping their eyes on the prize.
Successful people don't just go out there with a vague plan to "be successful."
They set goals and drive towards those goals — managing the risks along the way. For example, Steve Jobs wanted to put technology in everyone's hand — and he literally did that.
On the way, of course, he met several obstacles. The Apple PDA was a total failure and the MacBook was not a raving success. Nonetheless, by relentlessly pushing forward and navigating the surrounding risks over some 20 years, Jobs eventually reached his goal. How? At least partly by being patient ...
2. By being patient.
Patience is not about sitting around and waiting until you get the nerve to do something. It's also not about having a plan that you'll put into action at the right time, regardless of what happens.
Rather, patience is about waiting for uncertainty to be resolved and springing into action once you know what you need to know. Translated, that means successful people take action toward their goals only after they've learned whether they're more likely than yesterday to achieve them.
In Jobs's case, patience meant waiting for the world to catch up to his vision of finger-tip-based technology.
Indeed, Apple didn't invent touch screens, nor did they invent mp3 players, nor did they invent tablets. Nonetheless, in each case, they waited, with patience, until the world demonstrated an appetite for this type of technology — then Apple sprung into action and achieved Jobs's dream.
Getty Images/ Alan Crowhurst3. By always gathering intel.
Successful people always look before they leap. They realize that even if they own nothing but the clothes they're wearing, they still have their brilliance — and that's "at risk" if they carelessly make stupid moves. As a consequence, successful people gather intelligence on the surrounding, risk landscape.
For example, an aspiring executive will take care to be acutely aware of the possible vertical structure she faces in rising to the top of an organization. She'll know who can assist her, who can hurt her, how that structure might change with the organization's strategic and competitive evolution, etc.
4. By always preparing for the upside.
Successful people don't behave like curmudgeons that automatically interpret the word "risk" as meaning "downside." They prepare for the positive possibilities.
Try mingling with your CEO at the next office social, for example, and she'll probably tell you that she always looks for the opportunity, even when things are looking grim and everyone else is negative. She'll explain how she sees the future as a potential — not as an event to be avoided.
At the same time, your CEO will probably underscore that she sees being unprepared for seizing an opportunity as just as detrimental to the business and being unprepared for a loss.
For example, the first company to sell cardboard packaged milk in China saw the market for milk grow by over 200%, year-on-year, after China joined WTO. Nonetheless, the owner failed to take account of all the wood he needed to source the cartons. He failed to prepare for the upside.
5. Always knowing what (and who) is controlling the variables.
Of course, downside management has to be there: Elon Musk needed an exit strategy in the event consumers just didn't take to charging Tesla and needed a damage control strategy in the event incompetent consumers would fail to charge their cars properly overnight and then complain. But that's really about knowing what controls the key variables.
If your career aspirations are in the hands of one or a few people — you know a lot about what controls the key variables of your risks.
If your customers — competent or not — will make your product live or die, you know a lot about what's controlling the variables or your risks. The main takeaway is that successful people identify these controlling variables and then set about trying to deal with them and, in that way, control their risks.
Of course, successful people might take risk in a number of other ways but, without a doubt, they'd do so with simplicity. In other words, complicating the considerations when your taking risk just makes things complex and that's a risk in and of itself.
Keeping your eyes on the goal, being patient, knowing the landscape, preparing to seize opportunity and knowing what's pulling the strings are more than sufficient to achieve success.
Dr. Maurice Ewing is one of the most sought-after advisors of boards and executive teams in the world, having worked in over 50 countries as the managing director of Conquer Risk. A former top executive with a large banking group, he is currently writing a book about why great people are often overlooked. You can follow Maurice here and on Twitter @mauriceewing.
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