Taking Risks to Pursue Your Dreams

Article by Debra Gould

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” This quote by Cuban-French author, Anais Nin, was probably not uttered with business in mind, but it speaks loudly to aspiring entrepreneurs.

How many of our future business greats and world leaders are stifled inside their “buds” right now, with nothing but their own fears preventing them from blossoming?

Ten years ago, I was living very comfortably on the six figure income I was earning in my own marketing consulting firm, but I was frustrated. I wanted to do something more creative with my life, but was reluctant to leave the safety of the financially secure and well respected business I'd already built.

I had already taken a big risk ten years earlier by leaving a high-level position to start my own business. And here I was again feeling confined and wanting to take a chance on a new and more creative business dream.

It took a long time before I allowed myself to take the risk to leave what I had already built, which meant shutting down my firm and leaving my steady income stream behind to embark on a new journey of self-discovery. Through the process of buying and selling six of my own homes in a few years, and each time making a profit because of the way I’d decorated my properties before listing, my vision for a new business started to take shape.

When I took the risk of leaving the familiarity of what I'd done before, I was able to re-imagine my dream life and career. I found a way to combine my creativity with what I knew about business and real estate by starting my home staging company, Six Elements Inc. Because I was a single parent, this was all the more scary, yet all the more important. I wanted to lead by being a living example that it’s okay to follow your dreams.

What are you keeping yourself from doing? What are you showing your children? Is it riskier to stay exactly where you are and wonder "what might have been" for the rest of your life? Or is it worth it to face your fear head on and go for it?

There was a study done in a retirement home where they asked residents about their biggest regrets in life. The number one answer was "regret for the paths not taken." This ranked well above, "regret for trying something that didn't work."

It's important to examine, before we come to the end or our lives, what paths we might take. What would it be like to know you had little time left and realize that your life could have been entirely different if you had just had the courage to make different choices? Each day you remain safe inside your "bud", as Anais Nin calls it, is another day you have not spent as a blossom, on your way to living your true life.