Often I will come across someone that seems sour about the position they are in compared to someone else. “They have so much more money than me”. “They have a better job than me”.

On the other hand though, they aren’t prepared to do anything about it. They want all the upside but don’t want to put in the work required or take the necessary risk.

Most success requires some risk taking and a heck of a lot of hard work. Most pro sportspersons don’t end up there by accident. It is through the daily grind of consistent positive actions such as working out, training, learning the game, and so on. A lot tend to take on extra risk such as reducing hours at their full time job to enable them to focus on their sports career. This can mean an immediate drop in income. They are willing to risk a lot for the potential reward.

Personally, I have spent many hours writing for the blog and a book. I am risking a lot by the amount of time I have spent on each. I could have been doing so much more such as spending more time with the family, but I am hoping for some reward from this, such as more people learning about personal finance or coming to me for financial advice. Same for when I started my business. There were several up front costs that needed to be recovered by attracting customers. It was a risk for me to start the business and it is slowly growing. The rewards are not where I want them yet, but there has still been more reward than if I never started in the first place. I have even had opportunities that I could never predicted open up as a result of me taking this path.

The same goes for investing. If you aren’t prepared to take on some risk, you will never grow your wealth as fast as someone else who is prepared to.

I am a firm believer in slow and steady wins the race. We have a terrible habit of underestimating what we can achieve over the long term and overestimating what we can achieve in the short term. This results in giving up early or not even trying. But if we can show up every day and just make small positive contributions, they really do add up over time.

Your decisions affect your life. You have the power to make changes. Don’t think that you deserve all the good things without first taking on the risk and commitment required. Otherwise you will never earn the life you desire. It won’t fall in your lap. Take calculated chances, work hard, and eventually you too will reap the rewards.

Thanks for reading.

The information contained on this site is the opinion of the individual author(s) based on their personal opinions, observation, research, and years of experience. The information offered by this website is general education only and is not meant to be taken as individualised financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, or any other kind of advice. You can read more of my disclaimer here