The Risk of Doing Nothing

I was honored to recently serve on a panel with 5 other judges at the Alltech Innovation Competition at Alltech's international headquarters in Nicholasville, Kentucky.  Teams made up of MBA students from three universities, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and the University of Pikeville, competed through business plan presentations.  During opening remarks, Dr. Pearse Lyons, Founder and President of Alltech, gave a quick synopsis of how his company was started.  His story of American entrepreneurship began with the fact that he started his company with only $10,000.  His company is now quickly approaching $1 billion in annual revenue.  

     In his comments he made reference to potential lenders who during his business's early years turned him down for financing and it sparked an interesting thought.  Often times when we are presented with potential opportunities, we immediately turn our attention to the risks of making the offer or launching the new project.  Rarely ever do we weigh the risks of opting out or in effect, doing nothing.  Often times we see inaction as the safe road and feel the most secure knowing things will not change.  If you look on the books of those lenders who told Dr. Lyons no, you will not find the cost of that decision, but I am sure they would all admit the impact that decision had on their companies.  Economists call this an opportunity cost, which successful business leaders analyze everyday whether they understand the academic reasoning behind it or not.  If I invest my resources in one place, that removes my opportunity to invest it elsewhere and what is the cost in that?

     I believe successful entrepreneurship and even progress in general stems from just that; a different way of thinking that places greater emphasis on the risk of missing an opportunity, rather than failing while pursuing that opportunity.  When asked why they started their venture, I hear pretty consistently from entrepreneurs that they did not want to look back in ten years and wonder what if?  They could handle the reality of failure, but not the reality of not trying.  Successful leaders are willing to take on the risk of innovation and realize the only way you can really fail is by giving up.

     As I think back over the last couple of years and the many discussions and debates we've had with regards to our chamber expansion I am proud of the path we have taken.  We still have those who are hesitant to support, but we have more partners today than ever before.  We have more members today than ever before.  We are offering more programs and services to our members today than ever before.

     The leadership of the former Pike County Chamber of Commerce followed the character trait of many successful businesses, by refusing to accept the risk of doing nothing when opportunity arose.  When the risk of this new path looked us in the face, we knew the greatest risk lay in doing nothing.  We stepped forward not in the short-term best interests of our organization directly, but in the long term best interest of our membership and the businesses of eastern Kentucky.  Everyday our members put it all on the line.  You refuse to accept the status quo and are continually pushing the envelope.  In the spirit of great entrepreneurship, I believe your chamber is following suit.  In 2012, we accomplished things we were told could not be accomplished.  I still hear comments about the harsh reality that our region will never work together the way we envision, but our growth tells me otherwise.  As a reference to the great quote from Theodore Roosevelt, your chamber is “in the Arena”*.

     Here's to a great 2013 to each community, organization, partner and citizen of eastern Kentucky as I hope we can all look at the coming year with optimism, concentrating unified efforts on what can be created rather than what may be lost.  We will refuse to accept the risk of doing nothing and I pray you do the same.  God Bless.

     *"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 
Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910