cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, Ivan and Chell Warner, and Eric and Renee Miner
Roice is doing good considering his collar bone is broken in a couple of places. After thinking about what he learned from the motorcycle accident he shared a poem with several of us that I thought would be a nice basis for this week's Thoughtlet.
Because of my entrepreneurial tendencies, risk has been a central part of my life, and thus yours. When I resigned from Mobil six months before being vested in the savings plan, doubled our house payments, took a cut in pay, and moved ourselves to Houston from Dallas, we took a risk. To some people it was a gigantic risk. To me it was not a risk. When I left Landmark and started HyperMedia, it was a risk of the same category. Again, I did not see any risk, I just saw NetScape (after all we were three years ahead of them and had [have] better technology). However, after almost going bankrupt, seeing the strain it has created on our family, and me, I now recognize there was tremendous risk involved in that move.
In thinking about the poem Roice shared, I have identified two kinds of risk: (1) selfish; and (2) empowering. Selfish risk is related to doing things because it feels good to get an adrenaline high, because you are sure you are going to win the jackpot and will not have to worry about money again, or because taking the risk has the potential of providing something or some things that meets personal and / or ego needs. Empowering risk is service, love of neighbor, striving to make a difference, and taking a risk that has the potential to make the future better for others (if it benefits the risk taker it is a nice afterthought). Of course no one is at either end of this spectrum, but we are all moving back and forth in our motives.
I hope we can each take the time to evaluate the risks we take, and strive to take empowering risks."