I took a risk and it didn’t pay off:

I borrowed my dad’s car when I was 15, had one drink and reversed it into a pole the night before he was to sell it.

I took a risk and it did pay off:

I left a safe government job, familiar surroundings and the comfort of my family home with just $200 and an 18 year old’s dream to begin an adventure in a new country.

I took a risk and it didn’t pay off:

I married at 20.

I took a risk and it did pay off:

I bought my first home, as a single mum, with next to nothing, in the recession we didn’t have to have and managed to afford it for four years whilst paying 18% interest.

I took a risk and it didn’t pay off:

I left my cushy six figure job in corporate sales to go it alone doing what I do today, and lasted two years until limiting beliefs saw me walk away from what I loved.

I took a risk and it did pay off:

I bought a rundown retail outlet in country Victoria to learn about small business, staffing, cash flow and stock control and took it to a Telstra and Powercorp Award for ‘Excellence in New Business’, whilst co-hosting a community radio show with my husband, buying out our national wholesale supplier and designing and importing our own products.

I took a risk and it didn’t pay off:

I trusted a forklift to be my literal support only for it to be the first of many dominoes leading me to end up bedridden for nearly a year, liquidating, going bankrupt, my husband selling his soul to the devil, and then finding ourselves on Centrelink for five glorious months.

I took a risk and it did pay off:

I took the little money we had and spent it on my development and kept investing over and over again intent on living my purpose and continuing to make the difference in the world I am now proud to be making.

I took a risk writing this note and my message may not be read:

It may fall on deaf ears. And that doesn’t matter.

What matters is the fact that I have been able to take these risks and have been bold and brave enough to have taken many more.

Without taking risks we stand still. At any moment of this timeline I could have played it safe, stayed in a space of certainty and my life would not be where it is today. You and I would definitely not be crossing paths so far into this post.

I could have grown up in the same place I lived my whole life, I could have stayed in a relationship that wasn’t fulfilling, I could have stayed in my safe job and become a dinosaur, I could have stayed on the hand-out government treadmill that sucks the life out of good people afraid to take risks. But my husband and I cared enough to ask ourselves some really tough questions and answered them even more honestly. We risked failing big.

Paradoxically, the reason I am so happy is because of the risks I took that didn’t pay off.

How about you? How successful and riskful is your failure rate?

Be Bold and Brilliant!

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Image created by David Marcu

Bernadette McClelland is a keynote speaker, leadership consultant, and a sales support team member for companies, in growth-mode, that need to quickly build a bridge between business goals and sales results.