The Necessity of Risk

You know how certain moments in time just stick with you? You remember every detail? One of those moments for me is when my grandfather explained risk and reward. In his usual calm demeanor, he explained that risk was a necessity if I was going to win or succeed at something.

When you stop and think about it, it’s true. If you don’t believe me, just go read all the thousands of articles out there about the importance of risk in business, entrepreneurship, and oh…life.

Sometimes we take a risk and it doesn’t work out the way we wanted or thought it would. Sometimes we call that failure, but failure is also a necessary part of growing and succeeding. As musicians, we don’t want to hear that. We expect perfection from ourselves and our work, but that is simply not how things work. Everything truly great comes with some amount of risk (and often failure along the way).

If there is something you are hoping to do, but you are intimidated by the risk involved, here is my advice: Don’t wait for the right time. Don’t wait for it to get easier. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. Start now, in whatever small, simple way you can. Start now, lean into that risk and go get it.