Safety Nets

There are two scenarios that people take risks:

1) When it is necessary and the only way to change the present status which is not pleasant

2) When it is planned such that you really want to take risks to change the world and your relation with it

I ran a survey in my MSx class (comprised of international students who represent two ends of a spectrum - ones looking for jobs, and the others who have been identified as high-performers and are sponsored by their organizations as fastrack to upper echelons of management), and this is the list that they came up with:

External

- Money (varying amounts and forms) - not a surprise really

- Education (incl. professional license) - I guess that is not surprising either, given that we are here at Stanford

- Family support

- Impeccable professional reputation

Internal

- Self-confidence

- Alternate plan to bounce-back

I have classified it into 2 parts, as I think that over time growth happens when you move from the External safety nets to Internal safety nets. However, I keep wondering if you can build the Internal safety nets early enough, and then you don't need the External safety nets at all. But somehow, it is difficult to communicate and such people become lone geniuses I guess.