Take a F%^KING Chance Why Don’t You
June 20, 2011 
41 Comments
One of my all-time favorite one liner’s comes from the controversial but brilliant late comedian George Carlin who so eloquently put his spin on life and taking chances, as George would say: “Live a little, take a f%^king chance why don’t you”
Whenever I am faced with fear or self-doubt in making a risky decision be it in life or in business I repeat these words to myself and pump my fists in the air shouting out aloud ““Live a little, take a f%^king chance why don’t you”
Now I am not for one second suggesting that you should make irrational or emotional decisions, but its human nature especially in the 21st century to analyze the crap out of something to the point of paralysis, and it’s been my experience that the worst mistake you can ever make in life or in business is to simply do nothing.
Risk is an inevitable part of life, and I’ve got news for you, if you signed up to be an entrepreneur you better learn to embrace it and to slap it’s big voluptuous ass, because you aint gonna bake the perfect cake without breaking a few eggs.
So the next time you’re sitting on the edge of weighing all those pros and cons, my suggestion is you repeat these words to yourself “Live a little, take a f%^king chance why don’t you” and then jump head first into the decision, because even if you fail, you’ll learn the most valuable lesson of all…
Or as Leo F. Buscaglia put it: “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn feel, change, and grow.”
So true….
BOOM BOOM that’s the way to start the week, you’ve got me all revved up and ready to go, thanks J
Pleasure Patrick
Totally true, sometimes we forget that you can’t always play it safe in life, you gotta risk it to win it!
E X A C T L Y
That was just the pick me up I needed to get my day started.
Hey Camille glad to put some pepper in your stepper.
Love it, and you are so right we all need to remember to take calculated risks but risk none the less. No risk no reward
Yip its all about calculated risk, and I think sometimes we just over calculate and don’t take enough risk!
VERY TRUE, some of my greatest lessons in life have come as a result of major risk. Sure it’s not all been easy or comfortable but that’s the point I think… sometimes you have to step outside of your comfort zone to learn and discover new boundaries.
I highly recommend the book “screw it, just do it”
Sandy this is one of the reasons I love travel so much because it forces you to learn, and I have always held the opinion the moment you stop learning and growing is the moment you become irrelevant in the world.
As for the book thanks for the recommendation!
Dude, I see no other way to succeed in business, and life in general.
True that Chris, true that!
As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you loose money you gain knowledge
Exactly right Dale.
Very true. It seems with age and all the burn marks and bumped heads, we tend to get a little more shy to take bold steps. However is business you sometimes have to take a chance and go for it. Calculations and stats only go so far.
Absolutely correct Malcolm, and I think because we have so many stats and graphs to look at in business we’ve lost our instinct… kind of like what spell check has done for our spelling or calculators for our ability to add and subtract…
Just the other day I was talking to an attorney collegue, and we both agreed that our experiences as lawyers have made us somewhat more risk adverse than we previously were. It’s fine to just “take a chance” and “go for it” but it’s also wise to “look before you leap” and truly understand what you are getting into. I also suspect youthful people are more willing to take bold chances partially because they haven’t been burned as much.
Michael I think that we can actually learn from the youth, as we get older this whole risk aversion thing is actually B.S. Caluclate yes, but at some point please dear god take a leap of faith and back yourself.
SO true Justin, thanks for reminding us that you have to grow some brass ones every now and then.
Being complacent is not an option.
Mark I think with success or a degree thereof is easy to become comfortable and to want security over risk, but when that happens growth stops!
Great post J
Your unique and direct way with words was missed and I am enjoying knowing there will be more from you.
As one of the posters above said, I think with age we all somehow forget that to continue doing great things and achieving we have to be prepared to lay it on the line. This old dog just got reminded of an old trick.
Humbled …. thank you!
I think the modern day tendency to over-analyze everything stems in part from information overload and too many choices. Whether one is buying toothpaste or a new car, there are enough choices to boogle the mind, especially if someone tries to research the situation and make the best decision. Our minds really can’t process that much information. The Internet has made the problem worse by putting the collective knowledge of the world at our fingertips. Naturally, we can’t devote that much time to making most decisions, so we stick with the tried and true and in effect don’t make a meaningful (or perhaps intelligent) choices at all.
Sheldon, you are right the fact that we have so much info at our finger tips actually makes the problem worse that’s why I am always telling business owners to go back in some part to using their instinct and intuition which comes from a little place called experience.
Great article! A couple of my favorite quotes relate to this topic.
“You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ~Wayne Gretzky
“Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.” ~Frederick B. Wilcox
Donald I have not heard those quotes before but I have to tell you they’re awesome – love it.
Anyone who knows about George Carlin’s life would undoubtedly agree he lived by those words (“Live a little, take a f%^king chance why don’t you”). The guy experienced life on his own terms as much as possible and wasn’t afraid to stand up to authority (or anyone else) who got in his way. As the author points out, it got him into hot water at times and he became very controversial, which is probably not a bad thing for a comic. I had a chance to see him live several times in Atlantic City and Las Vegas and he was fantastic. In a weird way I found him to be inspirational exactly because he did throw caution to the wind and let it all hang out. RIP George.
I wish I had seen him live in concert, but I have all his recording and the man was a master with words, a true wordsmith.
I don’t recall what book I read this in, but the when paralyzed with fear about what *might* happen if we take a risk, the author suggested we think about the choice using a longer time frame. In other words, even if everything were to go wrong and this job (or whatever) didn’t work out at all, would it really matter to me in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? 100 years? This really helps me keep things in perspective!
Hey Cynthia thats an awesome way to look at is and you know what you are spot on!
This article is so true. If you risk nothing, you become nothing! I should have taken more chances. If I had, I would have had a much more exciting life. Now I feel as if it is too late. I am in my 70′s. I would have liked to have gotten an education and been a professional person. I haven’t dabbled in any of the things they teach in college. So I am not sure what I would have enjoyed most. Sorry to be a downer!
Elizabeth, the fact that you are reading a blog like mine means that you are not nearly done learning – keep it up.
“You aint gonna bake the perfect cake without breaking a few eggs.” – Bingo! The fear of taking a risk is a kissing cousin to the fear of failure. But failure is not so bad. We often learn the most by making mistakes. I recently read a book by Ralph Heath called, “Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes and Thinking Big” and the entire book was about this idea. Rather than avoid failure at all costs, it is far better to embrace it and learn what we can from the experience. It is how we get better. It is how we grow! Check out the book here: http://amzn.to/lJ2fDA
Hey Greg, awesome recommendation thank you will check it out for sure.
I always remember Leo Buscaglia from repeated airings of his lectures on PBS. The man was a gentle giant who definitely left this world a better place. I always remember him talking about love, caring, sharing and of course hugs. Not so much about taking risks. But on the other hand, it fits. What greater risk can we take than to love another person? Love causes us to be at our most vulnerable. Leo was all about affairs of the heart.
Agreed in life you have to wear your heart on your sleeve.
I agree with premise of your article Justin. A lot of people these days DO over-analyze everything to the point of paralysis. But what makes this even more disturbing is that quite often people evaluate risk in way that is entirely erroneous! A perfect example is the irrational fear of flying that millions of people suffer from. These same people think nothing of driving in a car. Lifetime odds of dying in a car wreck is 1:247. Lifetime odds of dying in a plane is 1:4023. (Source – http://www.criticalenquiry.org/theory/risk.shtml)
That’s exactly the kind of thing I am talking about, people really do loose the plot when it comes to letting stats rule their deciion making, it should be a part of it, but not the whole premise.
Thanks for the pep talk Justin! I think the article can be summed up as “GO FOR IT!” And even if thing don’t work out at first STAY THE COURSE! Persistence is another key to success. Remember that Thomas Edison failed at creating the light bulb more than 1000x before he found a way to make it work!
Absolutely true Sam.