RISK

RISK

Though the phrase “no risk, no reward“ is commonly touted, living it is another matter. Logically understanding that uncharted waters contain potential threats and opportunities is very different from navigating the water itself. Awareness of and peace with your risk tolerance and risk profile in a business, life, and financial context, can be life-changing. As an entrepreneur, risk is reality. As a Reluctant Entrepreneur, the magnitude of risk can seem, and may be, insurmountable. While risk may be correlated with the size of the reward and sustainability of the business, more is not necessarily better or best, because an over tolerance for risk can lead to business ruin or closure. Strategically consider your risks, along with your risk tolerance, risk profile, what you stand to gain, the potential strength of your competition, and the factors out of your control that can, and likely will, impact you. Boats are made to sail; fighters driven to fight; being at peace with limitations and leveraging strengths will determine the sustainability and duration of the risk and the reward. Risk cannot be outrun or avoided, though it can be leveraged and mitigated.

Strength

Strength is customarily depicted as a woman at peace with her hand resting on a lion, indicating that true strength does not require force. The card evokes both power and rest, as well as power at rest, like the breakwater buffering the boats from the ocean and the fighter in a ready stance. Strength confirms that there will be things on the journey that can destroy us, though indicates that those things can be partnered with and more peacefully integrated, instead of just defeated or overcome. Strength’s combination of courage, patience, and persistence parallels an entrepreneur’s relationship with risk.

Questions to consider:

• How are you leveraging risk to support your success?
• What are your actual, versus perceived, risks?
• How does your risk tolerance serve and not serve you?
• How can rest, or peace, fuel your next win?