The concept of risk

One of the biggest obstacles in becoming an entrepreneur is understanding the concept of risk. The human nature has a natural tendency to avoid risk. But reality dictates that it is not risk that we try to avoid but FAILURE. Failure is an integral but unspoken component of successful entrepreneurship. Let me explain.

Henry Ford, one of the all time biggest icons of business and the man who jumpstarted a whole billion dollar automotive business says it best, “failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” But, human nature does not like to fail. Correction, we do not like to risk. But many of us do not realize that failure is often times the greatest of all teachers. Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Only those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”

Michelle Yu is a risk taker. She is acknowledged to be the Philippines first lady driver in the sport of drifting. For those who do not know, drifting is the art of taking a car and asking it to do a mad ballet. Wikipedia defines it as a motor sport involving a technique, wherein a car is said to be drifting when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle, and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. Imagine an elephant ice skating, and you will see the picture.

Michelle has been featured on TV, magazines and newspapers for being very good at this sport. But beyond that, she is also a successful entrepreneur. She started a small business selling auto and character based shirts from a small kiosk located at the Maze in the Ayala Center Cebu. Today she is the proud owner of several businesses among which are the Off Price Store located at the Paseo Mall in Mabolo as well as distributing various automotive products such as Motul Oils, Mothers car detailing products, microtex and CK tint from Korea. 

I asked Michelle her secret. “Success is not a measure of what you accomplish in life and how great you fared. But on how we stand up every time we fall and do better the next time.”  I was surprised to hear that from her considering she is only 24. She started her own business at the age of 20. After successfully opening a small kiosk with PhP400,000.00, she automatically threw caution to the wind and started expanding, opening two additional stores in quick succession. Little did she realize that she was not ready for the additional pressure. She quickly found out that she lacked the management as well as the financial expertise to handle the 3 stores simultaneously. Worse was that, she discovered that she had a hard time managing her staff. It was a painful lesson.  But it challenged her to do it right and to do it better the next time.

Young people can learn a lot from this young lady’s attitude. If you have never met her, seek her out. You will discover that she is no different from you or me. In fact, she is very ordinary, with no airs or frills. But what makes her extraordinary is that she is willing to take risks.

T.S. Eliot  said “ Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, let’s all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at [email protected]