taking risk and being a hero

I don’t know why I keep coming back to this topic but I do. Risk taking is something that everyone is forced to do at some point. Heck, driving in your car is a risk. Walking to the mailbox is a risk. Not much of one but still a risk. Tonight I watched the school that I went to (Texas A&M) compete against Oklahoma in football. The game was very close but it all came down to the last minute. The Bob Stoopes, the Oklahoma coach, took the clock from 3:30 down to 1:30 but still needed half a yard to run out the clock. Easy, right. Anyone can get one yard. Unfortunately, they had not gotten a first down in the fourth quarter and they were on their own 30 yard line. If they went with the odds, they were not going to get another first down and the A&M kicker can make it from 50 yards out. Given that Oklahoma only had a one point lead, it looked like a huge risk. The announcers were saying that they would not make this call. They ran a play and made it but the coach called a timeout and stopped the play before it was successful. The second time that they ran it, the defense serged and almost stopped the quarterback. The key word here is almost. They stopped him at the line of scrimmage but he bounced off and tried again. When he fell down he fell forward and gained the one yard needed.


After the game Stoops was interviewed and said that the wind and the crowd noise was against them. The punt would have ended up short and would have given A&M just a little farther with a minute and a half to play. Given that failure would have meant the game, what is the risk. The risk is loosing the game. Given that Oklahoma was ranked in the top twenty and so was A&M, how bad would it be loosing by two points on the opponents field. Would they have dropped out of the top twenty? Probably not. Would the coach have been fired? Probably not. This isn’t one of their major rivals and they don’t have much of a chance to win the conference title.


In my opinion, it was a calculated risk. Would I have made the same call? I doubt it. I don’t take large risks like that. I focus on winning and not the bigger picture most of the time. Is that a bad thing? Probably not.


I have a friend that I recommended for a job years ago. He interviewed well and got a job in a different group than me. I kept telling him to become good at one thing. It dosen’t matter what that one thing was as long as he was the best in the office, area, and company. Once he obtained that status, everything else would fall in line with that. In my opinion being able to say that absolutely that something is the right thing to do truly is the right thing to do is one of the best emotions I can think of. For me, it takes being the best at something to have that comfort level and confidence. My friend decided he could make more money by investing in old houses and renovating them. His job suffered. He was never happy doing what he was hired to do. He always go sub par ratings because he spent too much time tracking stocks and looking at real estate. Fortunately for him, he realized this and is now buying and selling houses. Would I have the courage to drop out of a steady paycheck and totally change careers? Probably. I did this when I went back to graduate school. Looking back I made the same mistakes my friend made. I didn’t finish my Ph.D. because I was too distracted making money consulting and not doing my research. I got a reputation of someone who took too long to finish projects and my ideas were just a step behind. Does this mean that I can’t get a doctorate? No. It means that I screwed up in my attempt and didn’t even take my own advice.


Would I have gone for it up one point, a half a yard to go on my own 30? Looking in the mirror I look at every morning I don’t think that I have that much confidence or comfort. Ask me again in six months after being at Oracle for a whole year. I might answer the question differently. I just need to find that one thing that will make me a hero and build that confidence and comfort.