Risk is all around us. It’s baked into everything we do, into every day of our lives, a feeling that danger – and loss – lurks around every corner. It’s even baked into our brains, back when we were scanning every branch and every bush for something that wanted to eat us. So now that our world is much more than just the forest floor, how are we managing modern-day risk?
This July 4th weekend, we’re celebrating almost 250 years of America’s history – and how often the country took on all kinds of risks, and came out on top. In that spirit, I wanted to bring back a conversation I had with one of our country’s leading scholars on risk management. General Stanley McChrystal led special operations in Iraq during the 2000s. Later that decade he was put in charge of all forces in Afghanistan. When we spoke, the retired four-star general had just released his book “Risk: A User’s Guide.”
So how can we approach risk management in our own lives? How can we keep an eye out for danger, without letting the fear overwhelm us? Well, the general has some thoughts, and you’d be surprised who the real enemy is. It might just be… ourselves.