For most business leaders and owners, the one thing that makes decision really difficult is the high risk factor.
When it comes to decision making and risk taking, even the age old advice that we receive is of a conflicting nature. Recall the conflicting advice of the two proverbs “Look before you leap” and “He who hesitates is lost.”
One helpful technique that I use for minimizing business risk is to define the worst downside. I always ask myself and my team :
What happens in the worst scenario? Can we accept that, or will making this decision cause the ship to sink?
Just remember that the outcomes of some high risk/high reward situations are just too important for you to forgo it.
What I usually do is once I have decided to make a high risk decision, is to work with my team to do all that we can to minimise the risk.
You should always, however, bear in mind the wise words of Edward Whymper. After seven vain attempts he was the first to reach the summit of the Matterhorn in July 1865.
The line which separates the difficult from the dangerous is sometimes very shadowy, but it is not an imaginary line. It is a true line without breadth. It is often easy to pass, and very hard to see. It is sometimes passed unconsciously, and the consciousness that it has been passed is felt too late. If the doubtful line is crossed consciously, deliberately, one passes from doing that which is justifiable to that which is unjustifiable.