As today is Melbourne Cup day, I thought it prudent to talk about horses, betting and winning. Today the nation (supposedly) shuts down, but of course there are those occupations that just can't, no matter how exciting the horse race may be. For those people building their own businesses, chances are you can't afford to take chances like you would on a race like today's. Betting is best left for the races, and not for your business.
Gambling when it comes to business is tricky. On one hand you have to gamble and take chances to get anywhere in life. If you just wait for everything to be handed to you on a silver platter, you'd be sitting in your living room forever. Actually, you probably wouldn't even have a living room to sit in. but I digress. Taking chances is what makes great businesses start, and work. But they're often calculated risks, and risks that you know you can afford to take. They should also be gambles that you learn from should they not pan out the way you imagined.
And of course once the gamble pays off, that's when you start winning. Like the other side of today's race, a lot of hard work, enthusiasm and commitment goes in to what looks like an easy ride to us. Just like a smoothly running business. The hard work and the gambles pay off, and hopefully today it does for me too! (All that hard work getting to the TAB and all, I even had to put down my wine for 10 minutes!)
Happy Cup Day!