Risk Management

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose your feelings is to
risk revealing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd, is
to risk rejection. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk
dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be
taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing at all. People who
will risk nothing --- do nothing, have nothing, and become nothing. They may
avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or
live. Chained by their certitudes, they are slaves.

They have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is truly free.

Denis Waitley