“The biggest risk is not taking any risk,” Mark Zuckerberg once said in a 2015 interview. “In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”
The Facebook app founder stated that about two years after inventing Facebook, a few big companies like Yahoo showed interest in buying it from him but he declined. An adviser told him that he would regret his decision.
More than 10 years later, Facebook became the number one social media platform and currently attracts over 2 billion active users every month. What if he hadn’t taken the risk not to sell the company? Who knows what would have happened?
Taking Risks Helps You to Grow
People who have written their names indelibly on the sands of time and history, did so by taking risks, by going beyond the norm. The results we all celebrate today were only achieved because they took risk.
Taking risks to achieve our set goals can create apprehension. We often require courage to face that fear of uncertainty. But when we approach the goal achievement process with a win-win mindset that says “No matter the outcome, either way, I will grow through this process,” we become more resilient and confident.
Start taking risks today and face those fears. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Life is full of them anyway, but the good thing is that they aid your growth and learning process. Make mistakes. Take risks. Live.
For you to do more and be more, you have to be unconventional in your approach. You need to be able to go the extra mile. If you wish to achieve a new level in your studies or at your workplace, you have to learn the ropes and methods it took the more successful people in your field to attain those heights.
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (POET)
Does it take extra courses? Go for them. Would it require sleepless nights of research to find innovative ways to boost your company’s revenue? Take the step. The extra you put into any work you do is what makes you stand out. That is what makes you extraordinary, and that’s what will eventually get you noticed in any endeavor.
At home, in church, in school, in your office and wherever you find yourself, be the one that goes the extra mile to get things done.
Don’t stop thinking about your goals and don’t stop thinking about the task ahead. Your thought processes would lead to the approach that births the extraordinary in your life.
Today is a good day to take that risk towards your desired goal/output.
Do More.
Be More.
Be Extraordinary.
