Great things never came from comfort zones!

Maybe you’re ready to leave your 9-5 job, or planning to hire your first employee, or taking the steps to launch your next product or program. Newsflash, each one of these situations can only have a positive outcome if you are willing to take a risk.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur means that you need to embrace risk-taking. Without risk, there can be no reward. However that does not mean jumping into something without first assessing how the decision will impact your life and/or your business.

I will never forget the day I handed in my notice at my 9-5 job. I was crying before I entered my Manager’s office, I hadn’t eaten in 12 hours, and I was petrified that I was making the wrong decision. And yes I knew I was taking a big risk, but I had assessed its impact. I reminded myself that the worst thing that could happen was that my business would not become as successful as I hoped and so I would learn and try again. I didn’t jump into the ocean in the middle of winter, head first in a bikini, I calculated my risk, and I jumped into the lake in the middle of August on a 30 degree celsius day.

Risks are designed to teach you, to help you grow and learn and flourish. Do you want to look back on your life one day and ask “What If”?, or would you rather be able to say “I tried”, and “I succeeded”. And yes, you are going to fall, you are going to stumble, and you are going to scrap your knees, but you are also going to rise, achieve, and inspire!

In the words of Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, “I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this…I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that. I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. And I knew that would haunt me every day.”

So what are you waiting for?! Take the risk, make the jump, fall, crash, burn, learn, grow, succeed. The hardest step is the first, but you’ve got this!