What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Greatest risk you’ve taken that improved your life? (1 Viewer)

Gary Coal Man

Gary Coal Man

Footballguy
I’m not as successful as I could be, in great part, because I have such a risk-averse personality that I don’t take risks that could advance my life.  I’m so afraid to fail that I get nowhere because I don’t put myself in positions where I could be embarrassed or end up in a worse position..  In short, I’m a pus##.

As motivation to me and other risk-averse Footballguys who could benefit from hearing tales of big time risks that others took which ended up bettering their life —please share your life altering risk taking experience.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm way too big of a risk taker, but here are some things that have panned out:

  1. Moving from St. Louis to Springfield, MO.  My wife and I resigned from our jobs before we had new employment lined up, but wanted to time it all with the school year (she is a teacher).  We both found good jobs right away and it has been a better place to find a home and raise our two children.
  2. Started officiating football & basketball.  I kind of did it on a whim as I had just completed my CPA license and had a little bit of free time.  I had no idea the kind of enjoyment and relationships it would generate.  This is my 9th season coming up and I can't imagine my life without the game nights and fellow officials.
  3. Changing careers from accounting to construction project management.  I wasn't sure that being a PM was what I wanted, but I knew I didn't want to be an accountant any more.  I like it much better as a career and it has panned out well.  I'm a little lighter in the pocketbook, but much happier on a day-to-day basis.
 
i'd label myself as risk-averse.

quit a 15 year career in the automotive industry (which i had zero passion for) and moved to San Francisco to back to college at 36. goal was to graduate by 40, and got it done.

in the process i met my wife, found a new career (wine), got to live in a great city for 5+ years, met and befriended people i never would have had i never made a change, and grew as a person (i.e. new perspectives on life, politics, cultural and societal differences). scary as it was at the time, this was the best life-decision i've ever made.

and i'll probably make another career/job change in the next 12 months (at age 50), and not ruling out a move out of state. you only go around once, gotta make it count.

 
Gary Coal Man said:
I’m not as successful as I could be, in great part, because I have such a risk-adverse personality that I don’t take risks that could advance my life.  I’m so afraid to fail that I get nowhere because I don’t put myself in positions where I could be embarrassed or end up in a worse position..  In short, I’m a #####.

As motivation to me and other risk-adverse Footballguys who could benefit from hearing tales of big time risks that others took which ended up bettering their life —please share your life altering risk taking experience.
Click to expand...
Maybe give 1-2 concrete e smokes where you stepped back instead of stepped up. Your post is so vague as to be unhelpful 

 
two major risks, both worked out, my favorite would differ from day to day:

- quit showbiz. 25yo, had a weekly comedy show on radio, syndicated to a few markets, negotiating w RKO General to go national, already had two plays staged by legit theater companies, had developed an ulcer from deadlines and was beginning to seethe w resentment over the chowderheads on the business end of entertainment who had the money & power to tell me what to do. an old girlfriend called me from her commune in the mts above Santa Fe and asked me to join her. thought a while, decided to drop everything. my agent continued to shop me around for the next five years and the $$ was always so ridiculous that i allowed him to but, after i was out of the loop, i didn't give it a thought for almost 25 yrs, til i retired. like anyone who writes anything, it would have been nice to give one big thing to posterity, but my attempts at novels & major plays in recent years have proven to my satistaction that i didn't have one of those in me and i'm glad i left that lucrative treadmill.

- gamble for a living. the last year of my agent shopping me around, i had to be available for meetings and i purely loved NYC, but that's an expensive kind of waiting. i had grown up around horse racing, had seen the beginning of speed handicapping at Suffolk Downs (RIP), had gotten so good at picking horses that i was handicapping for cocaine dealers (and then picking horses for them to claim/buy) with too much dough @ Santa Fe Downs (RIP) when i was still at the commune. so i started reading the Form everyday, keeping records, going to the track a couple times each week and making a morning stop at OTB every day and ended up paying Manhattan rent by doing so. When a TV pilot i had co-written got sold but then lost in studio politics, i finally said "#### it" and moved to Reno - the same kind of high desert as Santa Fe - to play the Big Board of all the nations racetracks. i was doing quite well - there were no databases to compete with, so you could get great payoffs on turf & maiden races even without dabbling in the exotics (which i never cared for) - but a poker room next to the racebook had a big game in the back that fascinated me. learned the basics and launched myself into this pot limit game (among the regs were Freddy Deeb, Tuna Lund, Ray Zee, WSOP champ Brad Daugherty, for you poker historians) and knew immediately that i'd found my calling. To use the instincts of others against them for fun & profit, fell in line with all my talents & experiences. Then i was recruited to pick horses for gambling legend Treetop Straus while he was in Tahoe for Slim's Super Bowl of Poker (then the 2nd biggest poker tournament in the world) and ended up in his stable for the last year or so of his life. I hated Vegas, tournaments were not good use of my playing strengths and other good playing ops dwindled in those pre-Moneymaker years so, after five yrs a pro,  i chose to make my living on the other side of the table and was in the gaming biz til i retired @ 55. i think i might have regretted not being creative if i hadnt found the gamble which, as those in it will tell you, employs all one's talents & interest and asks for still more.  nufced

 
Last edited by a moderator:
For me, it was making the decision to sell my cellular businesses, and find some way to get out of the po-dunk town I grew up in.  I was doing well by town standards, but was fed up with the social scene and the general "values" of the town.  Once I left for good to go to grad school and surround myself with like-minded individuals, I really realized what the world had to offer and how short-sighted much of my life had been.  

In the 3 years immediately following selling the stores and deciding to get out of town, I got my pilot's license, met my wife, got my MBA, moved to NJ, and drastically increased my income.  Best decision I ever made.  

 
took a big risk by leaving a company that I had thought I would be with for my entire work life. 

I had a large support group around me at work and I knew my way around the company.  My wife worked there too and we had just moved 700-800 miles to company headquarters.  

Things were looking good and we were very comfortable. 

I got ####ed by a new boss but felt it was a temporary set back.  

Headhunter call - the opportunity looked good, but it was scary to leave. 

Best thing that ever happened to me professionally.   

 
Fat Nick said:
For me, it was making the decision to sell my cellular businesses, and find some way to get out of the po-dunk town I grew up in.  I was doing well by town standards, but was fed up with the social scene and the general "values" of the town.  Once I left for good to go to grad school and surround myself with like-minded individuals, I really realized what the world had to offer and how short-sighted much of my life had been.  

In the 3 years immediately following selling the stores and deciding to get out of town, I got my pilot's license, met my wife, got my MBA, moved to NJ, and drastically increased my income.  Best decision I ever made.  
Click to expand...
Between you owning businesses only to sell them and then ending up with an even higher income and a pilot’s license your post somehow made me feel like a bigger loser than how I already felt.  

But thanks for the share because posts like that were exactly what I was looking for.

 
I lied on my original resume that allowed me to get my first two jobs which I had zero qualifications to get.  But I got the jobs, and learned from them enough to actually start my career in this field.  

And when I say "lied", I mean I'm not sure there was one thing on there that was true.  It wasn't like I fibbed about a certain line.  It was all 100% :bs:

 
TheIronSheik said:
I lied on my original resume that allowed me to get my first two jobs which I had zero qualifications to get.  But I got the jobs, and learned from them enough to actually start my career in this field.  

And when I say "lied", I mean I'm not sure there was one thing on there that was true.  It wasn't like I fibbed about a certain line.  It was all 100% :bs:
Click to expand...
Congrats?

As a guy who has done hiring before, there is a lot to be said about hiring the right person, not the right resume.

 
I went from living with my mom straight into marriage. Didn't think I'd make it if I divorced even though I worked. Had just moved to CA, a higher cost of living from WA. But it was the best risk I took getting rid of a bad marriage. It made me stronger to be able to face bad stuff with less fear and alone. My self esteem and confidence is definitely higher from having gone through bad times alone and making it. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jayrod said:
Congrats?

As a guy who has done hiring before, there is a lot to be said about hiring the right person, not the right resume.
Click to expand...
I was just saying I risked a lot by lying on my resume.  But it got my foot in the door.  And I was able to use that to make my career what it is today.  But it all started because I took the risk of lying.  

 
TheIronSheik said:
I lied on my original resume that allowed me to get my first two jobs which I had zero qualifications to get.  But I got the jobs, and learned from them enough to actually start my career in this field.  

And when I say "lied", I mean I'm not sure there was one thing on there that was true.  It wasn't like I fibbed about a certain line.  It was all 100% :bs:
Click to expand...
Sounds like you are well equipped to find a new job.  You gonna send this resume to our buddy Keerock? 🤣

 
Ron Swanson said:
Sounds like you are well equipped to find a new job.  You gonna send this resume to our buddy Keerock? 🤣
Click to expand...
I don't lie on resumes any more.  I've heard too many horror stories of guys who had worked for companies for years and lost their jobs because somehow a resume lie was discovered.  My resume is 100% accurate since about 2002.

 
Gary Coal Man said:
I’ve never really stepped back.  I’ve just stagnated without making forward progress.
Click to expand...
Curious to know what's stagnated.

Do you mean you haven't progressed in title?

I find titles meaningless in today's corporate world -- some industries or smaller companies hand out director/VP/etc. titles to kids barely out of college, it varies widely from one company or field to another. What matters IMHO is if, aside from title, your scope and mandate continues to change/grow in ways that lets you learn more and gain more skills. I know for me, where that happened, I thought big and came up with a plan to increase my own scope based on opportunities I saw in our business, which eventually led to leading a global team around a function I created. Another way of saying that sometimes in order to grow scope where that doesn't exist in your job, you sometimes need to create that scope yourself.

If not in title or scope, do you mean stagnating in progress in terms of salary and other benefits?

This is where it pays to be more loyal to yourself than any company you work for. It's something I think about myself as though I have zero complaints about the level of my compensation (thanks to working in a tech and retail company that's grown massively), I wonder what was lost by not moving around more often -- internally and externally -- in terms of growing both salary and in some degree skill set.

I'm a bit of a corporate joe in that I've worked for 5 companies in my entire 25-year working career so far, two where I was at for 8 and 13+ (ongoing) years. I think there was likely things I missed out on being in one place for so long, which is why your post resonated with me.

A learning from my experience (and one I need to follow more often) is the same as I gave earlier -- be more loyal to yourself-- to what you want to do and where you want to get to -- than to the company you work for. 

 
Bob Mapplethorpe, potential get-away driver: go!

I'm a risk taker! I'm growin' an entire crop of marijuana plants in my parents back yard! I think that shows...

 
Went back to school at age 55 to get my doctorate (in accounting).  That allowed me to change from being a university Controller/adjunct faculty (basically a job and a half) to being a tenure-track faculty.  Lots more control over my life now.  I knew I didn’t want to be where I’m at now (eight years later) with regrets ...counting down the years until I could retire.

 
picked up at 22 and moved 1000 miles away to a big city where i didn't know anyone.  Only stayed there 3 years but it gave me the confidence to do it again, and once i got to Austin, I was happy.

 
Gary Coal Man said:
Between you owning businesses only to sell them and then ending up with an even higher income and a pilot’s license your post somehow made me feel like a bigger loser than how I already felt.  

But thanks for the share because posts like that were exactly what I was looking for.
Click to expand...
Owning a business is often not nearly as profitable as people think...There's a lot of equity (sweat and dollars) tied up in it.  It can be very liberating to just not have that burden anymore.  It's just not for everyone I guess - and I learned it wasn't for me.  

 
Three stand out to me:

1. My dad died when I was 15, and I moved out of my mom's house right before my senior year of high school. Super long story, but we didn't talk for five years. Those five years made me grow up very quickly. That was probably the riskiest decision I ever made because there was literally no going back. It was either work, find an apartment, and pay my own bills, or live on the street.

2. Decided at 23 to go to college. I had been working as a fast food manager, waiter, and bartender, and made the call to go to school. It took almost six years, but I got my degree in Aerospace Engineering.

3. After six years of working at Honeywell as an engineer, I decided to open my own business. 18 years later, I'm still here. We got acquired four years ago, and it's been a pretty fantastic ride.

 
wikkidpissah said:
two major risks, both worked out, my favorite would differ from day to day:

- quit showbiz. 25yo, had a weekly comedy show on radio, syndicated to a few markets, negotiating w RKO General to go national, already had two plays staged by legit theater companies, had developed an ulcer from deadlines and was beginning to seethe w resentment over the chowderheads on the business end of entertainment who had the money & power to tell me what to do. an old girlfriend called me from her commune in the mts above Santa Fe and asked me to join her. thought a while, decided to drop everything. my agent continued to shop me around for the next five years and the $$ was always so ridiculous that i allowed him to but, after i was out of the loop, i didn't give it a thought for almost 25 yrs, til i retired. like anyone who writes anything, it would have been nice to give one big thing to posterity, but my attempts at novels & major plays in recent years have proven to my satistaction that i didn't have one of those in me and i'm glad i left that lucrative treadmill.

- gamble for a living. the last year of my agent shopping me around, i had to be available for meetings and i purely loved NYC, but that's an expensive kind of waiting. i had grown up around horse racing, had seen the beginning of speed handicapping at Suffolk Downs (RIP), had gotten so good at picking horses that i was handicapping for cocaine dealers (and then picking horses for them to claim/buy) with too much dough @ Santa Fe Downs (RIP) when i was still at the commune. so i started reading the Form everyday, keeping records, going to the track a couple times each week and making a morning stop at OTB every day and ended up paying Manhattan rent by doing so. When a TV pilot i had co-written got sold but then lost in studio politics, i finally said "#### it" and moved to Reno - the same kind of high desert as Santa Fe - to play the Big Board of all the nations racetracks. i was doing quite well - there were no databases to compete with, so you could get great payoffs on turf & maiden races even without dabbling in the exotics (which i never cared for) - but a poker room next to the racebook had a big game in the back that fascinated me. learned the basics and launched myself into this pot limit game (among the regs were Freddy Deeb, Tuna Lund, Ray Zee, WSOP champ Brad Daugherty, for you poker historians) and knew immediately that i'd found my calling. To use the instincts of others against them for fun & profit, fell in line with all my talents & experiences. Then i was recruited to pick horses for gambling legend Treetop Straus while he was in Tahoe for Slim's Super Bowl of Poker (then the 2nd biggest poker tournament in the world) and ended up in his stable for the last year or so of his life. I hated Vegas, tournaments were not good use of my playing strengths and other good playing ops dwindled in those pre-Moneymaker years so, after five yrs a pro,  i chose to make my living on the other side of the table and was in the gaming biz til i retired @ 55. i think i might have regretted not being creative if i hadnt found the gamble which, as those in it will tell you, employs all one's talents & interest and asks for still more.  nufced
Click to expand...
Solid stuff here.

 
moved from ny to nc and learned that working for me is about making money.  i don’t want to get ahead, don’t press the flesh and i don’t hustle.  i do what i do to be left alone and earn and travel.  i learned that companies don’t care about its people, so i don’t care either.  it seems to be working.  less of a commute, can work remote, cost of living is lower and i’m earning just as much.  sounds pissy, but it’s the troof.

 
Chemical X said:
moved from ny to nc and learned that working for me is about making money.  i don’t want to get ahead, don’t press the flesh and i don’t hustle.  i do what i do to be left alone and earn and travel.  i learned that companies don’t care about its people, so i don’t care either.  it seems to be working.  less of a commute, can work remote, cost of living is lower and i’m earning just as much.  sounds pissy, but it’s the troof.
Click to expand...
I think maybe you've worked at some poor companies. I know a lot of companies that care a whole lot about their people.

 
Jayrod said:
I'm way too big of a risk taker, but here are some things that have panned out:

  1. Moving from St. Louis to Springfield, MO.  My wife and I resigned from our jobs before we had new employment lined up, but wanted to time it all with the school year (she is a teacher).  We both found good jobs right away and it has been a better place to find a home and raise our two children.
  2. Started officiating football & basketball.  I kind of did it on a whim as I had just completed my CPA license and had a little bit of free time.  I had no idea the kind of enjoyment and relationships it would generate.  This is my 9th season coming up and I can't imagine my life without the game nights and fellow officials.
  3. Changing careers from accounting to construction project management.  I wasn't sure that being a PM was what I wanted, but I knew I didn't want to be an accountant any more.  I like it much better as a career and it has panned out well.  I'm a little lighter in the pocketbook, but much happier on a day-to-day basis.
Click to expand...
@Jayrod - mind if I ask who you work for?  Or what kind of company?  General contractor?  I am in the construction PM field myself and we are always looking for quality people in the industry.  I work for a nationwide engineering/consulting firm that has a construction services division.  Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share exact details or if you're happy where you're at.  If that's the case, just generalities would be cool.  :)  

 
The HR job I had for 20 years went away (business closed) and I constantly found myself over or under qualified for positions i applied for. So I said eff it and went back to working construction. I make roughly double what I did before, but I have zero stress.

 
wikkidpissah said:
two major risks, both worked out, my favorite would differ from day to day:

- quit showbiz. 25yo, had a weekly comedy show on radio, syndicated to a few markets, negotiating w RKO General to go national, already had two plays staged by legit theater companies, had developed an ulcer from deadlines and was beginning to seethe w resentment over the chowderheads on the business end of entertainment who had the money & power to tell me what to do. an old girlfriend called me from her commune in the mts above Santa Fe and asked me to join her. thought a while, decided to drop everything. my agent continued to shop me around for the next five years and the $$ was always so ridiculous that i allowed him to but, after i was out of the loop, i didn't give it a thought for almost 25 yrs, til i retired. like anyone who writes anything, it would have been nice to give one big thing to posterity, but my attempts at novels & major plays in recent years have proven to my satistaction that i didn't have one of those in me and i'm glad i left that lucrative treadmill.

- gamble for a living. the last year of my agent shopping me around, i had to be available for meetings and i purely loved NYC, but that's an expensive kind of waiting. i had grown up around horse racing, had seen the beginning of speed handicapping at Suffolk Downs (RIP), had gotten so good at picking horses that i was handicapping for cocaine dealers (and then picking horses for them to claim/buy) with too much dough @ Santa Fe Downs (RIP) when i was still at the commune. so i started reading the Form everyday, keeping records, going to the track a couple times each week and making a morning stop at OTB every day and ended up paying Manhattan rent by doing so. When a TV pilot i had co-written got sold but then lost in studio politics, i finally said "#### it" and moved to Reno - the same kind of high desert as Santa Fe - to play the Big Board of all the nations racetracks. i was doing quite well - there were no databases to compete with, so you could get great payoffs on turf & maiden races even without dabbling in the exotics (which i never cared for) - but a poker room next to the racebook had a big game in the back that fascinated me. learned the basics and launched myself into this pot limit game (among the regs were Freddy Deeb, Tuna Lund, Ray Zee, WSOP champ Brad Daugherty, for you poker historians) and knew immediately that i'd found my calling. To use the instincts of others against them for fun & profit, fell in line with all my talents & experiences. Then i was recruited to pick horses for gambling legend Treetop Straus while he was in Tahoe for Slim's Super Bowl of Poker (then the 2nd biggest poker tournament in the world) and ended up in his stable for the last year or so of his life. I hated Vegas, tournaments were not good use of my playing strengths and other good playing ops dwindled in those pre-Moneymaker years so, after five yrs a pro,  i chose to make my living on the other side of the table and was in the gaming biz til i retired @ 55. i think i might have regretted not being creative if i hadnt found the gamble which, as those in it will tell you, employs all one's talents & interest and asks for still more.  nufced
Click to expand...
You really are the legend I'd imagined.  :thumbup:

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

GordonGekko
What Are Things That You Wished You Had Done Sooner In Life? (20/30)
Replies
7
Views
453
Gally
G
GordonGekko
Do You Believe That Effective Modern "Work / Life Balance" Is Even Possible? (19/30)
2
Replies
54
Views
1K
Joe Bryant
Joe Bryant
Judge Smails
Post your closest DUI scare
Replies
23
Views
879
Manster
Manster

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top