how risky are you?

I went to the first meeting of a new club I've joined last night. It's called the Entrepreneur's Club and is run by our IFA, Mark Townsen who is really a money coach in disguise!

The topic of the first meeting was risk. a subject I am fairly uncomfortable with, so it was great to start getting to grips with it. The issue being, if I want to be an entrepreneur, which I do, I need to get comfy with the idea of risk - because it comes with the deal - no risk, no entrepreneur! It's an essential part of the spirit.

What Mark got us thinking about, amongst many other things, was what was behind the fear of taking the risk and it's usually the big F word, FAILURE. For him, behind all the 'I won't be able to pay my mortgage, I'll have my house repossessed, I'll lose my job as an IFA' was the fear of going bankrupt and everything that meant. He then looked positively at going bankrupt, what that would mean, what opportunities it presented him with and thought of loads of other things he would do if he went bankrupt, he'd set up a church, he'd go and work with street children in Brazil, he'd go and live with his mum in her big house and keep her company. He made going bankrupt so exciting that everytime he took a risk, he was no longer bothered about the worse case scenario, (which was unlikely anyway)he actually saw the worse case scenario in a positive, exciting way!

So when you think of risk, what's behind that fear? What would be good about that worse case scenario?

For me, I worry too much about what others think. I think if I fail, I won't live up to other people's expectations and that people will judge me as someone who makes poor decisions. So I don't take risks and risk failure that often becuase of this underlying fear. But actually, it's tiring worrying about what other's think and trying to present an acceptable version of me to the world - so what would be good is that I could decide to no longer care - the hand would be forced, people would see me differently and I could stop trying to be acceptable, I could just be...ME! Phew! think that's what's called a lightbulb moment!