11

You can’t escape it. It is all around you. Sometimes you can see it, say, in riveting moments of triumph or defeat. Other times it is invisible, like a nerve gas, slowly taking over your system. It can be benevolent or benign, invigorating or debilitating, life-affirming or life-ending. It is RISK, and it is everywhere.

Faced with the inevitability of risk, we are left with two basic ways of dealing with it: doing something or doing nothing. Depending on the circumstances, either approach can be appropriate. But know this, whichever approach you take, you’ll be taking a risk. When you act, you might fail. When you don’t act, you might miss out on a big opportunity.

This part looks first at risk’s ubiquity. Like it or not, the world is becoming a riskier place to live. You’ll read about some of the ways that risk is growing in both prevalence and intensity, on a global scale, affecting us on a personal level. This part also looks at what makes a risk “right.” Be it in action, or in inaction, there is a right way and a wrong way to approach risk. You’ll read about the defining characteristics of a Right Risk, so that you can begin to decipher whether your big risk is worth pursuing.