Let me begin by wishing everyone a very happy new year. This week, our family is traveling to Iceland. And as many of you may know, there was a volcanic eruption that occurred there a few weeks ago. Now, we had been watching all the news reports to understand what the likelihood of this eruption was going to be.
We had made plans months ago, but up until this past week, I hadn’t done any shopping for the trip. Why, you ask? Because I needed to make a calculated risk. A month ago, they had evacuated the town where the Blue Lagoon is. Now, who wants to go to Iceland and not visit the Blue Lagoon? We were wondering if we should cancel the trip altogether or maybe rebook for next year. The travel company wasn’t willing to refund all our money and they wanted us to use the credit before August. Well, that left us in a conundrum because we wanted to see the northern lights and go to the Blue Lagoon. Yes, we wanted to be selfish and see it all. What do we do then?
We make a calculated risk. We listened to the news reports. We checked all the travel blogs and we waited until the very last minute. A week and a half before our travels, the volcano finally erupted.
Yes, there is ash and some evacuations, but overall, not as bad as it could have been. Flights are on as scheduled, the airports open, and they even anticipate the Blue Lagoon being open. So, we planned an itinerary that was around us not being able to go, just in case. If it’s open, great. If it’s not, that’s okay. We’ll still be able to go see the black sand beaches, travel through the glaciers, see the waterfalls and geysers. There are so many things to see. We’re going to take our calculated risk. You see, in life, sometimes things change and don’t go as planned. There are going to be situations where you must take calculated risks. There is the potential for harm, but if you don’t take those risks, you also may miss out on such beauty and wonder. And so, when we think about our teams and we think about our businesses, we all have to take a calculated risk once in a while. If we don’t, who knows what we’ll miss out on?
Yes, there is always the potential for harm. What’s life without trying? But they say, as our dear friend Wayne Gretzky, yes everyone, as you know, I am a Canadian, so I’m going to pull out the Gretzky reference, you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take. Therefore, this week, we’re going to be talking about calculated risks and making sure that the new year is full of opportunities for you to make those conscious decisions.
I’ll be sharing a lot of my stories from my travels next week. Until then, I look forward to you making your New Year’s resolutions with some of those risks built in.
