Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career (The 99U Book Series)

There are five primary types of risks: physical, social, emotional, financial, and intellectual.

Trying new things requires a willingness to take risks.

failure is inevitable, and that the key to success is not dodging every bullet but being able to recover quickly.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” So said Thomas Edison.

We are not powerless in the face of risk. After a decision has been made, we always have the ability to affect our situations to increase the probability of success.

Ultimately, we serve ourselves better by fearing a failure to act more than fearing failure itself.

We feel safe in our comfort zones, where we can avoid the sting of regret. And yet, at the same time, we regret most those actions and risks we did not take.

Some of the most common include not pursuing more education, not being more assertive, and failing to seize the moment. When people reflect later in life, it is the things they did not do that generate the greatest despair.22

Studies consistently show that when we look back on our lives the most common regrets are not the risks we took, but the ones we didn’t.

Failure gives us valuable feedback that we use to address our regrettable actions and improve our situation in the future.