In any endeavor risks must be taken. To avoid risk is to avoid opportunity. If you are concerned about the risk due to fear, you are not alone. But if you respond to fear with with rational action steps, you can overcome that fear and accept the risk. But if you cower under the fear of failure, you will never take the risk that could lead to greater success.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed” – Theodore Roosevelt.

You cannot avoid risk, but you can manage it with rational thinking and problem-solving. Learning to manage risk, is like learning how deep the water is and whether or not there are rocks under the surface before diving off a cliff. Rational thinkers don’t just dive off a cliff into unexplored waters, they practice due diligence and investigate what is under the surface before they dive in.

Think about this the next time you are presented an opportunity to do something different, something new, something risky. With a little bit of research and patient study, the reward might be greater than the risk.