I’ve been thinking about risk lately and what it means.

I think it’s different for everyone and rightly so.  I for one take risks that some people don’t just because of my exposure to it.  Take flying for example.  I’d have no problem hopping in a small Cessna and taking off into the sky.  For others who haven’t had the flight experience they wouldn’t do it, it would be too risky.

Then there is financial risk.  Some people have way more experience than I do in the stock market and don’t even flinch when they move a large amount of cash around.  Or gambling, I haven’t ever won anything at a casino so when I see people betting $10 a hand at blackjack I just don’t understand it.  I can’t do that.

We have been thinking about another property in PR.  It’s a bit riskier than what we are used to due to price and the fact that we want to use it to start our own business.  We do have some experience with running our own small businesses and can see possibilities and want to give it a try.  Here is the catch though; give up our comfortable life to do it?   What if everything goes bad?  OMG OMG OMG.  We both have good jobs and the living is fairly easy except for what challenges we hold ourselves to.

I haven’t really ever failed at anything I’ve tried to do in life (except putting down linoleum in the basement which turned out better because we went with tile instead).   So even the things that I have failed at turned out…better.  Isn’t that odd?   I used to think landing at a strange airport with no plans in mind was ‘risky’ but now that I’ve done that (a few times) its no big deal.  Experience helps us feel more comfortable about taking risks.

I want to make a trip out to PR again here in a month or two to look around.  I think that I am ready to expand my experience in life again and become more comfortable with being an entrepreneur.   Besides IF we were to fail just think of how much more experience we would have when we try again!  I am already very comfortable with Puerto Rico due to the fact I’ve been there a few times.   I know what to expect.

I encourage others to comment about any risks you’ve taken and how it turned out in the end.