Should risk drive you to your dreams? Or is playing it safe the way to go?

Most people have thought about what they would do if they won the lottery or if a distant relative passed away and left them a bunch of money.  Many of us think about what it would be like to come up with the perfect invention, a quick step into a pile of money solving all of our money worries and allowing us to follow whatever dreams we allow ourselves to envision.

And then…reality hits us.  Just like the Strokes lyrics, we take two steps forward and three steps back. We remember that insurance is important, bills need to be paid and the safe road is the one most traveled.

I watched a short segment of 60 minutes the other night. Enough to catch the reporter talking to college kids who are smart and thought they could drop out of Ivy League schools and be entrepreneurs. Hell, I can hardly spell the word! Anyway, they talked to the Mark Zuckerberg’s of the world, young people with a vision and the passion to pursue their dreams. The name Mark Zuckerberg may not mean a lot to you, but I bet the word “Facebook” does. He created facebook while still in college. Today, he is worth over 19 billion dollars and never graduated from Harvard. I’d say he was still successful despite the lack of his Harvard paper chase.

I read a book once that said that if you don’t have an idea that makes others look a little puzzled or think you are crazy when you tell you tell them about it, that it probably won’t work.  I guess it makes sense. Safe ideas are grabbed up in a minute by those who are unwilling to have the passion to believe in their mission. Zuckerberg had the knowledge and the passion.

I have a great admiration for people who are willing to take risks. I like to gamble, but when it comes to “being safe” I’m just scared enough not to take a risk that could benefit me in the end. I wish I could be one of those people. If I were, I doubt I’d be living in Indiana (although many people think I take a risk every day by living on the West side of South Bend J ha ha).  And I probably wouldn’t be working in the position I’m in.

So what about you? If you could do anything you wanted to do, anywhere you wanted to be, what would you choose?