{"id":6268,"date":"2015-01-18T17:55:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T09:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=6268"},"modified":"2015-01-18T17:55:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T09:55:13","slug":"dont-overestimate-the-downside-of-risk-medium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/18\/dont-overestimate-the-downside-of-risk-medium\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t overestimate the downside of risk \u2014 Medium"},"content":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s been at it for three years, and he\u2019s wondering\u200a\u2014\u200alike many of the founders I meet with\u200a\u2014\u200awhat it will be like if he raises money.
\n\u201cWill I have a board?\u201d he asked.
\n\u201cHow often will we meet? What will their expectations be?\u201d he quickly followed.
\n\u201cHow will things change?\u201d
\nI thought for a minute before answering\u200a\u2014\u200asomething I\u2019ve added to my Jedi skill set later in life\u200a\u2014\u200aand told him \u201cIt will change.\u201d
\nHe looked at me and I realized he wanted the details. Was he ready for it, I wondered. Yes, he\u2019s ready for it.
\n\u201cYou are going to have to learn to take bigger risks and get comfortable with failing more. You got one of those kids who has worked for you since the beginning, who has been super loyal and does anything you ask him to?\u201d
\n\u201cYeah actually, we do\u201d he replied.
\n\u201cWell, you\u2019re going to take the three jobs he\u2019s doing poorly and hire three people to do them right\u200a\u2014\u200aand there is a 50\u201350 chance there won\u2019t be a place for him when you do.\u201d I told him candidly.
\n\u201cHmmm\u2026 \u201c he replied. I could see it sinking in\u200a\u2014\u200athings change.
\n\u201cAnd you\u2019re going to have to take $500,000 and come up with 10 really good ideas to try, knowing that eight of them are gonna fail. You\u2019re gonna burn $400,000 big ones in a pile of ash\u200a\u2014\u200aso that one or two ideas might transform the business. Those ideas will take you from $1m this year to $3m the next year\u200a\u2014\u200aand $10m the year after. How many $50,000 crazy bets have you made in the last three years?\u201d I asked.
\nZero.
\nOf course, you can\u2019t make crazy bets when you haven\u2019t learned to turn off your fear. Just like Luke needed to face Vader in the cave trial and then in person, founders must face their fears \u2026 without feeling fear.
\nIt takes time, and there is no silver bullet, but as my pal E told me once, \u201cpeople overestimate the downside of risk, Jason.\u201d
\nvia Don\u2019t overestimate the downside of risk \u2014 Medium<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s been at it for three years, and he\u2019s wondering\u200a\u2014\u200alike many of the founders I meet with\u200a\u2014\u200awhat it will be like if he raises money. \u201cWill I have a board?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow often will we meet? What will their expectations be?\u201d he quickly followed. \u201cHow will things change?\u201d I thought for a minute before … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Don\u2019t overestimate the downside of risk \u2014 Medium”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,62,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice-for-the-day","category-personal-angol","category-reposts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}