The rewards you reap from taking risks

When I was ten years old, I didn’t like softball and I wasn’t any good at playing the sport.

But my dad happened to be the coach, so I didn’t have a choice and that summer I joined the league. On one rare occasion, my bat actually connected with the grapefruit-like ball during a pitch, I somehow managed to also safely reach first base. Next to the base, standing in that chalk-marked outline known as the coach’s box, was my dad.

While I trembled with wonder on first base, he leaned over and called to me,

“Hey! You can’t steal second base while your foot is still on first.”

Unlike me, when Rachel Kastner was a child, she was involved in an activity she enjoyed and in which she excelled. She was an actor. Growing up in New York, she regularly performed on stage and worked in production on shows on Broadway. Before she graduated from high school, she even produced a full-length documentary.

“I never expected to make a feature film at 18,” she shared with me during a recent Zoom call, “but I fundraised the money. I brought together the team. Together, we told the story of the woman who saved my grandfather in Poland during the Holocaust. It was an incredible experience.”

An accomplished actor, producer and director, by the time Rachel was preparing to leave college, she had plenty of offers from Hollywood. Her career path seemed clear. But then she veered.

“One Friday night on Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest which begins on Fridays at sunset), my family and I were reviewing my options and I thought, ‘Hollywood will always be there. Now is the time to take a chance on myself and try something completely new.’”

Rachel rejected her offers and, with her family’s blessing, bought a one-way ticket to Tel Aviv. This was November 2019, when none of us could foresee the unexpected occurrences of the year ahead. But since when can anyone ever plan and prepare for every single circumstance when evaluating risk?

That’s the concept I’m eager to explore with you today. Most companies create elaborate risk management systems, and I’m sure you’ve heard economists refer to the relationship between risk and reward. Like investment advisors say,

“The higher the risk, the higher potential of return.”

But as an individual seeking to advance your career, have you assessed your own thoughts about taking risk? Do you understand your professional “risk tolerance?” Before you consider that, consider a few reasons why people take risks in the first place.

1)    Taking risk can be an opportunity to learn

Before deciding to move to Israel, Rachel told me she had never developed an approach to networking.

“The six weeks before I moved, I made this crazy Excel document with every name I could think of, from start-ups to storytellers, and I started reaching out one by one,” Rachel shared. “I crafted personal emails, got on Skype, Google Hangouts, whatever. Within three weeks of arriving, I was employed.”

Taking risks can propel us to think more strategically, to plan, to calculate. There are plenty of lessons to codify if you succeed, and if you don’t, there are still plenty of lessons to learn from and potentially avoid for next time.

2)    Taking risk can lead to innovation

Now the Chief of Staff of a tech start-up, Rachel revealed that if she had clung to her previous vision of what success looked like, she would not be having the many new adventures and experiences she is reveling in now.

“I’ve helped this company build its story and pitch deck and fallen in love with the team,” she said. “Success can be much larger than our initial vision for ourselves.” 

Whether it’s new experiences, processes or products, nothing new can occur without some element of risk to begin with.

3)    Risk separates the leaders from the followers

Ouch. This is a tough one, I know. But in the ever-changing, competitive business environment we live in, leaders are those who take calculated risks, to stretch to change and to grow while those who always play it safe are likely to well, sta in place or get left behind.

  4) You won’t know unless you try

As for me, when I finally lifted my foot off first base and began sprinting toward second, I could see from the corner of my eye that my dad’s face had lit up. “Run! Run!” he cheered. I ran. As I neared the base, I stretched out my leg and tried to slide into second. And yet, I was tagged out.

But the pride with which my dad beamed on our drive home, knowing I had taken the risk and tried, was worth it for me. You see, he died the following winter and I never played softball again. My reward wasn’t making it to second base after all. Instead, it was in making the memory with my dad during the fleeting thing called our life together. 

If you’re reading this, your life is still unfolding. Maybe you won’t make a career-changing country relocation like Rachel. Maybe you will. But whatever it is, I urge you to consider taking that risk. Make the memory that you tried. That may be the greatest reward.

Fortune 500 executive coach, trainer and speaker, write to Gina in care of [email protected] or right here!

@TheGinaLondon