Risk

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Dear Roice, Ben, Paul, Melanie, Sara, and Rob,

cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, Ivan and Chell Warner, and Eric and Renee Miner

Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea, belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail box at any time.

Roice is doing good considering his collar bone is broken in a couple of places. After thinking about what he learned from the motorcycle accident he shared a poem with several of us that I thought would be a nice basis for this week's Thoughtlet.

Risks To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss. 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 to risk nothing. The person that risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they can not learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. Chained by their attitudes, they are a slave, They have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free..... Author-Unknown

Because of my entrepreneurial tendencies, risk has been a central part of my life, and thus yours. When I resigned from Mobil six months before being vested in the savings plan, doubled our house payments, took a cut in pay, and moved ourselves to Houston from Dallas, we took a risk. To some people it was a gigantic risk. To me it was not a risk. When I left Landmark and started HyperMedia, it was a risk of the same category. Again, I did not see any risk, I just saw NetScape (after all we were three years ahead of them and had [have] better technology). However, after almost going bankrupt, seeing the strain it has created on our family, and me, I now recognize there was tremendous risk involved in that move.

In thinking about the poem Roice shared, I have identified two kinds of risk: (1) selfish; and (2) empowering. Selfish risk is related to doing things because it feels good to get an adrenaline high, because you are sure you are going to win the jackpot and will not have to worry about money again, or because taking the risk has the potential of providing something or some things that meets personal and / or ego needs. Empowering risk is service, love of neighbor, striving to make a difference, and taking a risk that has the potential to make the future better for others (if it benefits the risk taker it is a nice afterthought). Of course no one is at either end of this spectrum, but we are all moving back and forth in our motives.

I hope we can each take the time to evaluate the risks we take, and strive to take empowering risks."

I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life. If you ever want to download any of these thoughtlets, they are posted at http://www.walden3d.com/hrnmen or you can e-mail me at rnelson@walden3d.com.

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 1997 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.