You are living in a certain way and without taking risks your life will stay the same. You have to ask that woman out on a date to meet your wife. You have to network or send your resume to get your job. You have to move to a new area to buy and own your home. Taking risks will propel you forward in whatever you do. Sometimes the results of accepting risk are positive and sometimes they turn out negative. This doesn’t mean that the action of risk-taking itself was wrong. It is simply a potential outcome you were willing to allow.
Risk-taking is a calculated exercise. You devise and weigh the potential outcomes and decide that overall, you expect a positive result. Coming up with this analysis of the situation is the hard part. Gambling is another form of calculated behaviour, but in this case you expect a negative result. It is never wise to gamble, other than as a hobby with resources you are willing to lose.
Recklessness is different from both risk-taking and gambling in that it is uncalculated and usually impulsive. You straight-on head into a situation with no knowledge of the dangers involved. While the results of recklessness can be positive, they are often negative and you shouldn’t brag about it in either case. There’s no way to be proud of chasing an unknown reward with unknown risks. Recklessness most likely ends up in a scenario described by “play stupid games, win stupid prizes”.
It is best to build a solid basis from which to take risks and only lose which you don’t care about. After you’ve covered your monthly expenses and savings for retirement, you can use the leftover money to start a business without worrying about your daily costs. Being surrounded by great and loyal friends, you can shop around for additional friends to share new hobbies with, while still having a stable social basis.
Real opportunities lie behind risks. Someone has to be the first person to try the risk and find the potential solution. When everyone sees the opportunity is when the window is gone. Now everyone is doing what has once been considered risky.