Great post today from Mark Suster (@msuster on Twitter) at GRP. You need to follow him if you’e not. His blog is: Both Sides of the Table. He has a true passion for entrepreneurship. More importantly for you, he gives great advice.
He wrote a post today about Risk taking as a key success factor for entrepreneurs. The post was appropriately called “cojones.”
Here is the comment I posted to Mark’s blog:
I think most people perceive risk incorrectly. My father died at 48. He didn’t take good care of himself (I try to) but his untimely death taught me a few things. In regards to risk it taught me that risk is not what we think it is. The only thing you can take with you when you go is a decaying corpse. Work backwards from that and all of a sudden working for stock or quitting a job seems trivial. Risk in this case is an excuse for trying to avoid the truth. The truth is usually about fear.
I think what Mark calls cojones is as much (or possibly more) about passion and fear than it is about risk or perceived risk.
The sad fact of life is that most people don’t know what their passion is. However for those that do many choose to follow their passion (or calling) and it shows in what they do. I believe that what keeps the rest of people from following their passion is fear. Fear on many levels. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of how others perceive them, etc.
I’m not saying that everyone needs to start a company to follow their passion. We are full of passionate people at m-Via – it shows in our team meetings which can be fun to watch sometimes – who know why they want to be here.
Cojones to me means saying “fuck you fear” and following your passion.
