Life, Like Entrepreneurship, is Like a Game Show
“My friend recently called me a daredevil, which is true (ask my family). However, my risks are calculated. I temper my gut instinct by considering several factors. I assess the terrain, I look at the players, the environment, historical considerations, and I consider the worst-case scenario. Most times, my decisions work for me. Sometimes they don’t. And that’s OK because, through the process, I’ve understood my risk tolerance better. I know now what I am willing to lose or give up for the greater possibilities of what is behind the curtain.”
Before I begin to recount this story, I must say I received permission from my husband to tell it. We are both entrepreneurs, as were our parents, and we have learned to laugh at some of our craziest decisions in this journey. A recent experience has me thinking, however, about risks and rewards.
My husband was recently on the game show: Let’s Make a Deal. I streamed it from the CBS app because, admittedly, I stopped watching TV several years ago. He was one of the contestants and came 3rd in the lineup. The first person had the opportunity to take a wad of cash or choose the potential of what was behind curtain # 1. She took the risk and won (temporarily) a pair of scooters. Great prize, possibly worth more in retail value than the wad of cash being dangled before her. The second contestant was given the option: take the scooters from contestant #1 or go for the possibility of what was behind curtain #2. If she took the scooters, contestant #1 would receive the prize behind curtain #2. Possibly less of a risk-taker, the contestant decided to take the certainty of the brand-new scooters.
Contestant #1 received the prize of an all-expense-paid trip to the Dominican Republic. Then came contestant #3, my husband. He was given the choice: he could take either the trip to the DR or the scooters or go for what was behind curtain #3. My husband took the risk and went for curtain #3. Woosah! The curtain was opened and the prize was a broken-down Peugeot! For those of you who don’t know this car, imagine you went to the junkyard for parts. As I watched, my heart sank. A junk car! What will we do with that? Then I started laughing because the lesson was unfolding in real-time.
I cannot say what decision I would have made at the moment. I would have liked to think I would choose from a near certainty of one of those prizes. I need a vacation…and if I didn’t take the trip, I could have resold the scooters and done something amazing with the cash. The coulda, shoulda, woulda conundrum.
I am generally a risk-taker. In business, though I’ve had many naysayers, my risks have led to the growth of my company from one location started several years ago to multiple locations that have survived through a global pandemic. Being in business during these times has taught me a few lessons on risks and rewards and how to carefully assess the terrain in front of me. I aim to share 3 of these lessons below:
When the heart and the head conflict, seek more information.
I’m a Cancer, and as such, I’m a “gut person.” I tune into my gut first. Whenever I haven’t listened to my gut it has generally brought me pain and suffering. Yet as an entrepreneur, I like to take risks. My friend recently called me a daredevil, which is true (ask my family). However, my risks are calculated. I temper my gut instinct by considering several factors. I assess the terrain, I look at the players, the environment, historical considerations, and I consider the worst-case scenario. Most times, my decisions work for me. Sometimes they don’t. And that’s OK because, through the process, I’ve understood my risk tolerance better. I know now what I am willing to lose or give up for the greater possibilities of what is behind the curtain.
The system of risk and rewards is a continuous interplay. You can’t have one without the other.
I have several Entrepreneur friends, and I love having conversations with them because I learn how they make decisions and how their choices have played out for them. The one common thread is that without risk, you can never get to the rewards. However, preparation is critical. I once heard that success is when preparation meets opportunity. My husband may have been better prepared to understand the odds of winning a better prize than the two tangible ones in front of him. He would have understood that the best prizes had already been won and gone for the certainty of one of two grand prizes.
The first-mover advantage is real.
It’s like entering the stock market well after the stock has hit its peak. You’re either spending way more money to play, or you will stand to lose way more money when the stock inevitably takes a downturn. Whether you’re wholly prepared or not, you can benefit from being the first mover. I loved the game Connect 4 as a kid. When you positioned your chip right in the middle, the odds of winning the game increased. You put your opponent in defensive mode. And, if you play it right, you can create several opportunities to win no matter where your opponent places their piece.
“Taking risks is a part of life. Every day we wake up and leave our homes, we make calculated decisions about how we spend our time, with whom we interact, and what type of information we consume. You can change the odds of making winning decisions in life and business by understanding your board, the players, and the game. The hustle brings wins and losses, but hopefully, you have more W’s than L’s. Waiting until all the conditions are right can have you missing out on critical opportunities and the ability to create the game’s rules. Understand the gut instinct and temper it with information, and you will continue to win!”
No more “coulda, shoulda, woulda!” I’m sure my husband would have loved to take me on that trip to the Dominican Republic or plan a trip through some fantastic trails on a scooter. We will do that one day.