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January 30, 2019,
Both decisions come with benefits.
Both decisions come with detriments.
To live an adventurous life or a protected one. Which do you prefer?
There was a time when people applied for certain jobs that one of the questions on the application was phrased to assess your comfort level with risk.
Certain personality profiles who wanted to play it safe and desired a lower level of risk tended to apply for government jobs that were steady and did not involve risk as opposed to ones, say for example, in the FBI or CIA that involve extreme risk.
Other personalities will always work in private industry because they in part feel that you should always learn how to hunt for your food and continue to enhance your product and skills for survival. Too, along this pathway, the road to profits have no ceiling.
Real life examples are very powerful.
We know a number of people in our circle who lived a life that involved very little risk in their employment and they took very few risks in their private life.
As an example, they were not the type of people who played it safe in their work life but took risks in their private life, like playing high risk sports or engaging in mutually agreed upon extra marital romantic activities.
They were consistent across the board.
Ultimately most have a very stable life. They paid their house off before 60. They never refinanced. They don’t own rental properties. They built a large savings and substantial retirement with recurring income and they take a nice vacation once a year.
Often a theme park like experience where you can feel the thrill of the risk, but still drive back home safely.
While we admire them from a distant, for people like ourselves, we could not live that life.
Why not?
Though they have virtually everything they desire in a material way, their understanding of the complexity of life and the range of experiences that people have seem to be limited. They tend to form strong opinions based upon their previously very structured life experiences because they haven’t been exposed to the severe ups and downs of life.
They seem like people who are putting this life on cruise control so that they can live another one in the next to fast lane later.
Yes, you read that correctly.
They are never going to want to drive in the fast lane. Even in the next life.
Having said all of that, we have tremendous respect for them. In this life, especially for a male, you will be judged by your occupation, how much money you make, what kind of home that you live in and what your retirement and assets are like.
Good for them. It is just not for us.
Our life is clearly not for them either.
Then there is someone we know that we’ll call James.
Why? He is a risk taker. Who is the ultimate government risk taker? James Bond of course.
The James Bond series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections.
Since Mr. Fleming’s death in 1964, eight other authors have written authorized Bond novels or novelizations.
The latest novel is Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz, published in May 2018.
Yes Mr. Bond works for the government but risk is completely what his life is about.
Which brings us to our James.
He once sat down with us and presented a check list of why he fits a certain profile that involves risk.
Some people work for the government. He has always worked in private industry, at times contracting out his services with no safety net. He could be fired tomorrow.
Some people in their private life associate primarily with people of their background. He has extensively associated with people of other backgrounds, in their groups, alone.
Some people read the novels. He has written a novel.
Some people rent the houses. He was a land lord for over 20 years.
Some people are customers at websites and buy products. He owns several websites and sells products.
Some people are monogamous in marriage. With his wife’s permission, he was not. He took the latter to another level. Not only did he sleep with other women, with the permission of their husbands, he slept with their wives while they quietly watched.
Some people ask their parents to pay for their college educations. He moved 100 miles away from home without knowing anyone in the city where he would eventually go to school and paid for his own college education.
Some people travel to foreign countries with a tour group. When he was young, he traveled abroad alone.
Some people sit in the stands and watch the champions play. He was a coach and built champions in both women’s high school tennis and in men’s track and field where his charge finished his senior year as California’s number one ranked senior in the brutally competitive 100 meter event.
Yes, number one, in the most populated state in America.
Are you becoming enamored with his life?
We aren’t.
Since we’ve known him, it was a life of severe ups and downs.
He’s made a lot of money and lost a lot of money. He has bought houses. He has lost houses. He has lived a life of extreme highs and massive lows.
It is not a life for us.
Someway, somehow, life should be about balance. Finding it is the tricky part.
In terms of our friends who played it safe, they expressed that they would not want to endure the ups and downs that James did. Beneath the surface, they like him, but don’t respect him.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”… Mark Zuckerberg
Our attraction to James, as an associate, is for the very reason that those who play it safe are not comfortable with him.
He is very complex.
He is absolutely intriguing.
He is very analytical.
He is hard to read. Even harder to figure out.
We once asked him why in the world he would live a life like that. One completely different from his siblings.
He took his time and thought about it and said words to the effect. “Life is to be lived. You can’t play it safe. Trains derail. Planes crash. Earthquakes ravage. Fires burn out of control.
It is not a matter of how many times you get knocked down. It is far more important how many times that you get back up.
In this short life it is important to do what you really want. That always involves risk. If you do, you have the chance to evolve into the epitome of the person you should be and so much of that will be based upon your life experiences.
They should be varied and extensive.
If your life experiences are limited, then your internal makeup will be as well.
Eventually you will understand there is no ceiling on what you can achieve or accomplish. What you lose, especially in a material way, you can always get that back.
Don’t live life afraid. Fear is a destroyer of life.
Some of us can’t live life any other way. It is not about how we’re wired. It is about our aspirations.”
Understood. From a distance.
What are your aspirations in life?
Playing it safe or taking risks. Each one seems to come at a price. Which one are you willing to pay?
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OPENING PHOTO Sony Pictures Releasing photo credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond
https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/risks
http://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
