A Risk Taking Factor

Few days back I was talking to one of my friends who runs his own business. The discussion was about the concern I had for the risk involved in one of the decisions that was made. And below thought is what I could take away as learning from this discussion –

“Every self-controlled person must take a calculated risk in their life.” This thought gives rise to galore of questions, as to what is mean by ‘Self-Controlled Person’?  How to determine the ‘Calculated Risk’ and why one should take it?

            ‘Risk’ is when we take up certain task/activity looking at its extraordinary benefits, though we know that there is a possibility of failure in accomplishing it OR its accomplishment might lead to certain adverse side effects. When such a risky task/activity goes other way, then we get exposed to the adverse side of it which puts us under more or less intensity of mental, physical or monetary strain. Now the ‘Calculated Risk’ is when we know in advance the intensity of such a strain and the extent of setback that can be received when such an activity/task doesn’t go as planned.

            Such a calculated risk taking capacity varies person to person, as the potential of fighting against different kinds of strains and stresses is different for every individual. To give an example, a guy with poor self-control, when exposed to such strains might start boozing (instead of fighting back) and get addicted becoming victim to the risk, and will suffer from its worst side effects. Whereas other guy with good self control might plan better against such a risk and might execute it successfully to overcome it, and eventually will only see the best side of it.

            I personally feel that, people who had to struggle hard to raise in their careers carries comparatively better ‘Risk Taking Factor’. When one has to face lots of adverse conditions and hence lots of risks in order to achieve what he/she is looking for, is what I think we call as struggle. And when one struggles, means he gets trained to fight back the different kinds of strains, hence over the period becomes more and more self-controlled. But of course one needs to realize the self ‘Risk Taking Factor’ by introspection, and then go for the ‘Calculated Risks’ to achieve every other intermittent goal. This way one will keep growing more & more tough, knowledgeable and self-controlled to achieve the goal of life, thereby adding more meaning to it!

Following (as shown in the table) can be the different parameters which one should consider for RTF calculation, before taking up any kind of endeavour.  If we consider ‘An Ideal RTF’ as 100%, then I will give the weight-age to each of these parameters as in the table below-

Parameters	Weight-age
Visibility & Assurance of  results	30
Family Dependency	10
Financial Dependency	10
Self Control (tolerance over strains)	20
Ability & Confidence	20
Age	10
Ideal RTF (total)	100

Now to show the approximate calculations, let’s take a specific example of a person whose individual evaluation against each parameter (for an endeavour like- ‘going for higher studies’ or ‘starting a small scale business’) is as given in the column ‘Individual Evaluation’ from the table below. So based on the proportionate calculations, his RTF comes around 76%. In my opinion, having an RTF (for any endeavour/task) more than 70 is a strong indicator that one must go for it.

Parameter	Weight-age	Individual Evaluation	Proportionate RTF
Visibility & Assurance of  results	30	> 70%	21
Family Dependency	10	Medium	6
Financial Dependency	10	Medium	6
Self Control (tolerance over strains)	20	> 90%	18
Ability & Confidence	20	> 80%	16
Age	10	< 40 (yrs)	9
Ideal RTF (total)	100	Individual RTF (approximate)	76

‘Taking Risk’ makes your life more happening & thrilling. Hence all those who love thrill and are courageous enough to lead an adventurous life need not worry about all these calculations. But for those who are very specific & hesitant about taking risks in life, the RTF can be a good indicator for making decision on taking up the calculated risks. And of course the accuracy of RTF indicator is in direct proportion to the accuracy of the aftermath calculations and hence no one else can calculate your individual RTF but you.