Get out of your Comfort Zone, Take Risks and Run with the Big Dogs.... Now or Never!!

"If you want to run with the big dogs, you have to get off the porch," as the saying goes. To put it another way, you must leave your comfort zone and take a chance to find your genuine capabilities and abilities. Rather than great brains or inherent skills, effort and tenacity are more likely to lead to career or investment success.

Most people are afraid of failing, which prevents them from reaching their full potential. When confronted with a challenge outside their area of competence or experience, they shy away from it. They overlook the fact that failure teaches the most valuable lessons. Before finding market success, Henry Ford went bankrupt four times. Thomas Edison claimed to have experienced 10,000 losses, but he saw them as learning opportunities because he discovered what didn't work.

You have to get out there and take a chance unless you want to spend your life with "ifs" and "buts" ("I could have, if..." or "I would have, but..."). I've learned that it's pointless to always play it safe in life.

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Prisoners of Our Past

Psychologists refer to the unconscious acceptance of an arbitrary position or capacity as an individual's "deserve level." It has its origins in childhood and is characterized by our mental perceptions as we get older. Fear, both real and imagined, reinforces our self-perception and the risks we are ready to take.

The "big dogs," the society's movers and shakers, have learned to reject unfounded fears and limits in pursuit of their objectives, which everyone can do. It takes effort, knowledge, and experience to tell the difference between a real and imagined threat.

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Making the Effort

"Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration," according to Einstein. Society's big dogs are continually on the move, looking for new ways to learn by pushing boundaries. Nolan Bushnell created the first computer game, Pong, and started Atari, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, and BrainRush, among other firms. "If you're ready to work more than everyone else, you generate your luck," he said when asked how he got so lucky.

The vast majority of persons regarded as giants in their fields are neither unusual nor endowed with unique abilities. They, like everyone else, have flaws, peculiarities, and eccentricities. Their distinguishing characteristics are their work habits, perseverance, and readiness to take measured risks.

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Calculated Risks

Many moviegoers were ecstatic to see Sandra Bullock driving a bus in the film Speed, which featured a 50-foot jump over an elevated freeway. Bullock was not the one behind the wheel of the bus at the scene. Joffrey Brown, a stunt driver, enacted the scene by flying more than 100 feet in the air and destroying the bus when it crashed seconds later. (To finish the scenario in the movie, Bullock drove a replacement bus.)

Brown, who has worked on hundreds of wrecks and crashes, took a calculated risk after a comprehensive analysis that included weight, distance, and aerodynamic calculations. The crew stripped the bus down to its bare bones and added a customized safety harness for the driver to save weight. Finally, Brown began the drive from over a mile to get maximum speed.

Successful CEOs and long-term stunt performers fear taking risks, and they both defend their companies, families, and bodies with equal zeal. They manage risk by first gaining a complete grasp of the circumstances and probable consequences and then making efforts to avoid the worst-case scenarios.

?Intelligence, Knowledge, and Wisdom

The majority of people on the planet are of similar intelligence; only about 2% have an IQ of greater than 130. To put it another way, there is little inherent diversity in human brain aptitude. Knowledge, the theoretical or practical comprehension of facts, data, or skills, maybe learned and made available to anyone willing to put out the effort. Wisdom, or the proper application of knowledge, comes from trial and error or experience. Successful people gain the discipline and resilience necessary to achieve their objectives by overcoming or reducing roadblocks. They are not frightened of risk, whether physical, financial, or social, but learn to handle it via education and experience.

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Getting into the Game

If I had to choose between intellect and guts, I'd go with the latter. I'm free to recruit as many minds as I want. The employee who steps up when everyone else backs down, the one who says, "I've got this," is the most difficult to find.

You must take that calculated risk of thriving in your current career or shifting to one with more potential. This single decision will alter the trajectory of your career. One after the other, prospects for bigger jobs, more money, and improved security will present themselves due to stepping out of your comfort zone. You must get off your psychological porch and start running with the big dogs.