Staying in the middle won't get you far: the right risks can lead to your biggest breakthroughs
From a circus act to career lessons on how to learn the balance between playing it safe and taking smart risks
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Last weekend, I took my daughter to the circus for the first time. I went in thinking it would be all about the kid’s excitement but I ended up being the one blown away.
It was thrilling, surprising and even a bit scary, especially when those trapeze artists were flipping through the air like gravity didn’t exist.
It was a couple of hours that pulled us all in as a family. Highly recommended!
Then the tightrope walker came out.
She stepped onto that impossibly thin line, completely balanced, focused, and fearless. The crowd, and certainly me, was holding its breath, but she appeared calm as anything.
I watched her take those steps and started to think: “Damn, there’s something there, something about risk, balance, and that razor’s edge we walk in our own lives and careers”.
I couldn’t stop my mind from running down that tangent... what could we learn from that kind of balance?
Many people say a career is like navigating a tightrope, right? It’s almost a cliché. But what does that even mean?
You are up there, balancing, doing your thing.
There are safety nets below, but if you mess up too much, they will eventually disappear.
You practice every day, getting better at staying on the wire, but no matter how good you get, luck is still the wind, and it can knock you off at any moment.
Most people don’t think about it, but to stay on that rope, you’ve got to be consistent.
Show up, day in, day out.
Don’t do anything reckless. Don’t lean too far to one side, or you’re gone.
However, I also think there is a catch: if all you do is maintain balance, if you just stay in the center, you are likely to get across but you will never dazzle anyone.
That circus show will be very boring.
You need to take a few measured risks, play into the wind, and position yourself where luck can step in.
Think about the times in your career when you played it safe. Did you ever hold back from suggesting that bold idea in a meeting because you were afraid of how it might land? Or maybe you passed on a stretch assignment because you didn’t feel ready yet?
That’s the kind of risk I’m talking about: the calculated leap, where you know the stakes, but you also see the potential upside.
You won’t plummet if you stumble. You might just learn something.
These are the chances that make people notice, that push you further along the rope.
The real art is to never, ever do something so reckless that you crash. You can spend 30 years walking that tightrope perfectly, but one careless misstep, one lapse in judgment, and it’s all over. You will fall off the rope, and fall hard.
This is not just abstract talk.
Years ago, I knew this guy, let’s call him Rick. He was a colleague of mine. He worked his ass off, showed up every day, and was damn good at what he did. In his department, he was known as a rising star and he was close to running across that rope, one foot after the other, eyes locked on the top. His boss loved him. His team members couldn’t get enough of the guy. He was earmarked for a VP position, the kind of role that only a handful of people get to sniff at.
Then he got fired. Out of nowhere.
Turns out, Rick had been fudging his travel expenses for years. It wasn’t even a lot of money, just a few tweaks here and there to get a bit of extra cash on the side! Once the firm found out, they had no choice but to fire him: you can’t have someone in a position of leadership who cheats, no matter how small the infraction seems.
And that’s the point: he had everything going for him. He was winning. He had his foot on the prize and, because he got greedy, because he made a stupid decision, it all came crashing down.
Rick did not need the money, he was already doing great financially. But maybe it wasn’t about the money for him. Maybe it was the thrill of getting away with it, the excitement of pushing boundaries. Who knows.
That is exactly how you blow your shot.
A great reputation, years in the making, gone in a day.
“A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.”
We all know that saying, but what people don’t talk about enough is how to protect that reputation, how to keep walking that line without losing your balance.
The secret is surprisingly simple: stay consistent. Show up. Don’t do anything too stupid.
If you are always looking for shortcuts or ways to game the system, you are walking right into a trap. Just staying in the safe zone, never taking any risks, won’t guarantee success either.
Play it safe, but not too safe.
Walk the line, but take calculated risks (just never forge your expense claims!)
I wish I had found a more inspirational way to close this (you know, “YOLO!!”, “FucK rEGrEts!!!”, “Live today as if there’s no tomorrow”, etc), but the wisest conclusion I could draw is that, in the circus of our careers, the tightrope is always there.
We should take the daring leaps when they make sense, but always keep one eye on the ground.
Don’t fuck it up by doing something reckless, and don’t be so cautious that we miss our shot.
How do you find that balance?
Let me know in the comments!
✍ The Management Consultant
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How to succeed in Mr Beast production is an (allegedly) leaked memo by the greatest YouTuber in history on how he thinks and acts in his business. It is interesting and, for once, we can even find a positive spin for consulting in there!
“Look at the real people, and you’ll see the honest future for yourself. Be careful not to discover a career before you’ve discovered yourself. This all presupposes we’re starting from a point where considering these questions is a real possibility. Sure, pure objectivity is impossible; after all, society itself also defines the context of our thoughts, and by now it’s way too late to effectively remove ourselves from that. So how can we evaluate what experiences we want for ourselves, when it is experiences themselves which transform our very desires?” - Great old post by Signal’s founder Moxie Marlinspike. I agree with a lot of it.
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Risk is not the same as danger; the difference lies in whether there is a margin of safety and protective measures. For example, a rock climbing expert climbing without ropes may not necessarily be more dangerous than driving under the influence in a busy city.
Thanks for adding to my confusion hahah! Can you give us an example where you took a calculated risk and another when you were reckless? Thanks for sharing this.