.orgLesson 7: You Have to Take Risks
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Achieving success often involves taking risks. Frank certainly understood that:
When he started his funding was limited to his relatively modest life savings and a string of credit cards that he quickly maxed out. Schilling literally bet the farm on his dream.
He and Michele sold their house and the remaining homes Frank had built and emptied their retirement accounts to build a $200,000 war chest. They also decided to move to Grand Cayman Island where they felt the absence of income and property taxes would help their money go further.
Now that was obviously a calculated risk on his part (I definitely advocate strongly against selling everything you own, maxing out your credit cards, and moving to the Caymans without a plan 
), but there are at least a couple of good reasons why just about every success story you read has a chapter or two about the risks it took to get there.
First of all, you very rarely get something for nothing. If you’re truly passionate about your dream, you’ll be willing to take some well-thought-out risks to get there.
Second, and probably most importantly, most people perform at a higher level when they have skin in the game — I know I certainly do. I’m simply much more engaged when I have something on the line. It’s like Andrea wrote last month: it’s good to feel scared, it means you have something to lose.
Is there something you’ve held off doing because you were scared to do it? Get you some good counsel before taking the leap, but if you’re reasonably sure that it’s responsible, jump. There will never be a better time than now.
This article, “You Have to Take Risks,” is Lesson 7 in the Lessons from Frank Schilling series.
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