“I have no tolerance for risk”

You've got things you want to achieve. Everybody does.

You're probably working on one of those right now. I certainly hope you are.

So let me ask, what is your tolerance for risk in that work? What degree of failure are you willing to risk in return for the possibility of success?

If you're a particularly careful person you might say something like:

I don't have any tolerance for risk at all because I never take risks.

Beware of this kind of thinking.

Because every effort involves risk.

Every time I buy something online, there's a chance I'm going to hate it and will at least have lost the time and trouble of waiting for it, sending it back, and searching for something else.

Insisting you have no tolerance for risk is about the same as insisting you don't care about ROI.

Here's the thing:

Because every effort involves a risk, it's simply not helpful to insist that you have no tolerance for it, or that failure is not an option. Failure is always an option.

The question to ask is how much risk you can tolerate — how much you're willing to invest, in effort and other resources, for the chance of succeeding, knowing that you also have a chance of failing.

Answering that question will allow you both to move forward towards your desired outcome, and to limit the negative impact of missing the mark.

All the best,
A.

P.S. The quote above is taken from Douglas Hubbard’s How to Measure Anything, from a person he describes as “a midlevel manager at an insurance company client of mine.” Great book. Very recommend.