Will you die wondering

19th April 2012

My son is a very keen cricketer, and for the most part, a pretty decent one. However, as a Dad, although I love to watch him play, I find myself standing beside the pitch half wanting him to bat or bowl, whilst the other half is saying don’t let him do anything which could go badly against him i.e. will he bowl badly and be smashed around the ground, or bat badly and be out for 0? In other words if he doesn’t do anything, then no-one can say or think that he wasn’t any good. I know on some occasions he has actually turned down opportunities to open the batting for fear of “failure”, and given me some excuse which we both know is allowing him an easy way out. When I have challenged him on this, I have asked him wouldn’t he rather have at least tried and “failed” rather than die wondering “what if”?

The same thing applies to many aspects in our lives and our businesses. I know I keep on about doing something, or taking some action rather than waiting for things to happen, but I truly believe that we don’t get many chances in life, so surely it is better to have a go, than forever wonder what might have been. From a business point of view, as in life, you don’t get many chances to try things out, so whilst I am not encouraging wild risk taking, next time you have a good idea (which you have carefully done the numbers on) why don’t you bite the bullet and make it happen. Remember don’t think “what if it fails?” think “what if it works?”

So why not take some chances, so you don’t look back in a few years time and think “I wonder what would have happened if I had done…..!”

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