Any risk you take in life will have a good outcome, and a poor outcome. The question is what size of risk are you willing to take, and if the possible rewards are worth it. You could dump your entire life savings onto one roll of a roulette wheel right now. Perhaps that would bring a large reward. Most people know, however, that a 50/50 chance like that isn’t exactly worth it. The losing consequences would be too great.
In our careers, however, it can be harder for us to gauge the risk and if they’ll pay off or not. Look to the artist who painted a mural in Facebook’s offices and chose to take stock in the company instead of a cash payment, earning millions. It was a risk, but one he took, and one that paid off.
While few of us get an opportunity quite like that, it’s fair to say that you can decide on which risks you’re happy to accept. Those who join the military, for example, accept the risk of seeing conflict and being put in danger in exchange for a very stable career path, while gaining a trade and good pay.
In this post, we’ll discuss how to consider your options when moving forward:
Learn A New Trade
Taking some time away from a main career path to focus on learning something completely new could be considered a beneficial risk, especially if that new skill complements or offers a good fallback for one’s current work. The potential rewards from a decision like this are often quite tried and tested, even though time spent on acquiring different expertise is time not dedicated to projects or job searching, which does involve a calculated opportunity cost.
For instance, obtaining a master of financial technology online would help any professional with knowledge of a huge and rapidly expanding industry, and that means far more opportunities would become available when a job search is underway.
Accept A Pay Cut
Sometimes, a person is settled in a role that provides security and a respectable wage, but perhaps the daily duties don’t feel entirely fulfilling, or the role offers little in the way of career advancement, and these are the times when the possibility of accepting a pay cut may help.
It may seem like a rather daunting idea, to bring home less money each month, which is certainly an obvious risk, but sometimes that lower-paying position is precisely the necessary bridge to a much better and more exciting career in a different specialism.
It might just happen that a lower-paying job is offered by a very prestigious organization, and having that kind of company name on a CV is something that could help you move laterally in the direction you want. Sometimes it’s even worth downsizing for it.
Change Your Location
Moving somewhere entirely new, perhaps moving to a different city or another country, can be quite nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time, especially if the career prospects there seem vastly superior to what is available to you locally. The disruption involved with such a large move is quite major, of course, because a new residence, social circle, and crucial support system all has to be built from scratch, and this is truly a major mental and emotional task that should be approached with great care. That said, sometimes to build a the life you want, you have to find it somewhere more appropriate.
With this advice, you may consider risk-taking with a mindset for achieving what you truly want in your career.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — ICover Photo Credit: – Andrea Piacquadio
