We’ve heard it time and time again: in order to be successful in business, it’s important to take risks. This is one aspect of business that took me especially long to embrace.
Why? I was born and raised in the US, however my first full-time job was in Japan. So my earliest work experiences were those that followed the famous proverb “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”. At the time there was not a lot of innovation, creativity, or outside-the-box thinking as a young employee, but the desire to fit in was apparent in everything from workplace etiquette to clothing styles.
Upon returning to the states, I soon observed peers advocating for themselves. Making an effort to stand out. Taking risks. For me this kind of behavior took some practice: taking risks and knowing it’s OK to do so.
Good news is that two FANTASTIC leaders within WIC, Francine Gordon and Kathy Klotz-Guest, are leading a workshop THIS Friday, May 20, that will allow participants to stretch, discover, learn, and gain confidence around risk taking. This is not your normal sit-and-be-lectured-to format; Francine and Kathy have some exciting exercises and surprises planned for all.
In the end, I expect we’ll ALL walk away having exercised our risk-taking muscle, and knowing that the potential upside of risk taking FAR outweigh the downside of failure.
