Risk wisdom

Kita kena berani GAGAL!

(You must have the balls to fail!)

When a plan for an event went completely south, this was what he shouted at the top of his lungs inside a car while both of us were heading to the campsite. Pok [REDACTED], was a retired Warrant Officer for Malaysia's [REDACTED]. He has a lot of wisdom to his age, and to me, he's like the grandad I never had. A mentor. 

Enough of that.

We need to fail often, fail fast, fail hard.

And try again afterward.

The key is, when you do it again, never repeat the same mistake. Learn from those mistakes and improve on whatever it is you're doing.

But when it comes time to perform, make sure all the failures are worth it, make sure you win.

Biar bodoh 5 minit, dari bodoh seumur hidup

(Better to be a fool for 5 minutes, than the be dumb for the rest of your life)

When in doubt, ask. When encountering something that you do not know, ask. Do not be afraid to "look like a fool" because you asked, but fear the burden of being dumb for the rest of your life because you didn't ask. That being said, don't be the coward that's too afraid to make decisions and ask for everything. Man the fuck up. But know when to ask for knowledge or ask for guidance.

There's always a risk in doing things. 

Whether action or inaction, the risk is always there. Where there's action, there's a reaction. Consequences are always there, waiting for us.

If you're afraid to the point that you evade doing anything, doing nothing also has its consequences. You hesitate and wait too long, there are also consequences. Do and succeed, or do and fail both have their own consequences. Live your life evading consequence, avoiding failing, you might have never lived at all. Better die than to live in cowardice. Consequences will always be there, the real measure is how you deal with them. 

In everything that you do, there are risks. A buddy is heavy bleeding, if you drive fast enough you might get to help in time, but drive fast you might get into an accident and never reaching in time. Wait for help, they might not make it in time. There are always risks involved. In anything. Nothing worth doing doesn't come with a risk. What can we do?

The thing we can do is plan ahead, and pick the one that is worth the risk taken. Make high investment with higher return. Mitigate the risk through good planning and having the ability to execute it.

Malaysia's GGK during basic selection. Photo credit: BTDM