"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you failed by default." - JK Rowling
I'm an accountant. People think that is boring....and they're right. However one of the things that helps me as an accountant is also helpful to me outside of my day job. I analyse risk and think about all of the possibilities.
Often in my day job I am told about the opportunities that the business has to explore and I am asked whether it is worth doing it or not. My first instinct which is a human one, is to think about the negative risks. What happens if it fails? What happens if things don't work out the way we plan? To provide balance and to try and be as objective as I can be, I have to force myself to think about what if it goes well. What will the outcome be if everything goes to plan?
This is what I try to do when it comes to opportunities in my personal life. I will of course think about the negatives but more often than not the negatives aren't as bad as you think they are. It is just your brains way of trying to ensure you survive and preventing you from encountering danger.
The problem is that you don't truly know if something is going to work until you do it. We all have brains and we can all use them to calculate the risk. I would suggest, when encountering a new opportunity ask yourself these questions:
- If it fails what is the worst that can happen?
- If that happens how will I deal with it?
- Would I learn something by giving it a go?
I'll use an example, I had a retail management job which was paying me about £34k a year and I was 24 years old so at that point in my life I was happy earning that kind of money. However I had a goal since graduating that I wanted to be a chartered accountant. At this point in my life I had the opportunity to do just that. I was offered the role of an accounts assistant for a small business. It was going to pay me £20k a year.
As The Clash would say: Should I stay or should I go? If I answer those questions above:
- The worst that can happen if I go is that I will hate the job/company and be stuck earning a lower salary doing something i hate.
- I will ensure I don't burn bridges from my current role so I have an option of potentially coming back to work for them.
- Yes I would learn something, I would no longer think 'what if' and I will gain experience by working in a different environment.
You probably think you know the answer to what I did, as I told you I'm an accountant, and you are right. I took the job. However it didn't work out the way you are thinking. I hated the role and the company, but I did what I said I would do if it was to go wrong, I went back to the retail management job I was doing after 6 months. How I eventually became an accountant I won't bore you with BUT a big part of it was that I took that risk and point number 3 was true, it provided me with invaluable experience that I has helped me continually.
If you find yourself with an opportunity and don't know what to do, ask yourself those 3 questions above and I reckon you will get to an answer and you won't regret it. The more you do it the easier it becomes.
If you want proof, I thought about starting a blog and asked myself those 3 questions which has led me to here with you reading my first ever post.
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Thanks for reading,
Gav
