High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 552: Why Risk Taking is Key to Success

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

We all need courage and risk taking to be successful in our careers and experience fulfillment. Staying the same and not changing or growing can lead us to feeling stuck. Dr. Cindra talks about how we need to keep trying new ideas and taking risks to find our purpose and what we are meant to do.  Quote of the Week: “No one knows what’s a good idea or a bad idea until you try it.” -Marc Randoph, Cofounder of Netflix This Week’s Power Phrase: “I try new things to experience success.”  

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. It's time to check in with Cyndra Kampoff today. Today we're talking about risk-taking.

Sounds a little scary, but why risk-taking is key to success. And Cyndra, start us off with a quote. This is a quote by Mark Randolph, who is the co-founder of Netflix. And he said, no one knows what's a good idea or a bad idea until you try it. So tell me what inspired your topic today. Well, this weekend I was at the National Speakers Association conference in Orlando, and I got a really cool certified speaking professional award, so that was really fun. And there I heard Mark talk, actually, who's the founder of Netflix. And a couple of things that really surprised me,

he was talking about two pieces of advice that he would give to any entrepreneur. And he said, you got to start, you know, most people don't even get started. And if you don't start, you don't even know if it's a good idea or a bad idea. And then he was talking about focus and how there's 1000 things to do. And then, you know, most successful people are really dialed into the most important things. But Lisa, there is something that he shared that I didn't know and really surprised me. So Netflix was $50 million in debt. And they met with Blockbuster that, you know, Blockbuster might become like an investor or at least buy out Netflix. And they said no. And now Netflix is worth over $600 billion, and Blockbuster only has like one store left. That's crazy.

And at that time, they had, you know, 600,000 stores. So it just shows you the importance of innovation and trying new things, and that's what we're talking about today. Well, why is this so important? Well, this is so important because, you know, courage and risk-taking are really key factors in our success, both in our personal life and in our career. And I think it's difficult to build a career without risking something. Maybe it's speaking up to risk your reputation or maybe money or even you, maybe risk failure. And it's really important that we just put ourselves out there to really follow what really inspires us. We know that risks can sometimes be scary. Taking risks is scary. But what does the research say about taking risks? Well, good question. So we

know that business owners who take risks are actually more innovative and flexible and open to new opportunities. And there is a set of German researchers who surveyed more than 200,000 people. And those who enjoyed taking risks actually were more satisfied with their life and more content with their life. So the point really is that we got to keep on pushing our comfort zone, not stay complacent and do things, you know, just that are a little bit scary. Now, I know that in your latest book, Beyond Grit for Business, you give some examples of this. Can you share with us a couple of those? Sure. So one example I share is like Oprah. And Oprah, you know, started the Oprah Winfrey Show and became the highest rated program of any kind. And she grew up in poverty. She was actually

pregnant at the age of 14, which I didn't know. I didn't really know before I did a lot of research on her. And she was, you know, the only AfricanAmerican woman on the Forbes billionaire list. And she said, do the one thing that you think you can't do. She said, fail at it, try again, do better the second time. And the only people who never tumble are those who never really mount on the high wire. And even Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon, he was vice president of a hedge fund in Wall Street and he felt this calling to become an entrepreneur. And he left the security of his job and started Amazon in 1994 in his garage.

And now we can buy almost anything on Amazon. And he said, I projected myself forward to the age of 80 and I didn't want to be 80 years old and catalog a whole bunch of major regrets of my life. Wow. And that's what we're really talking about is pushing forward, having courage, taking some risks. Yeah.

And other than that, what do these two examples all have in common? Well, I think they really followed their intuition. They followed their passion. And they did take calculator risks. So they were prepared. They did their research. They made informed decisions, but the key is to move forward

and have courage to be innovative at the same time, you know, using logic to make decisions. But I think they both really followed what they were really meant to do and took risks to get there. So how do you summarize today for us? Well, we all need courage and risk-taking to be successful in our careers

and to experience fulfillment, which I think is most important. And staying the same and not changing or growing can really make us feel stuck. So keep trying new things, taking some risks, and that's how the best ideas are developed and how you can find purpose in what you're meant to do. What's this week's power phrase, Sandra? I try new things to experience more success and fulfillment. And can you tell us how to keep in touch with you and your work?

Sure. So this is a little bit of a part of my book, Beyond Grit for Business. And you can head over to beyondgrit.com to find out more information about my book and Dr. Cindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A to find out more about my work. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos

about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.