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Right Risk: 10 Powerful Principles for Taking Giant Leaps with Your Life

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We live in interesting--and exciting--times. While tremendous opportunities are placed before us, we are also surrounded (and influenced) by unparalleled uncertainty. Practically everything in our lives seems fraught with risk. Is this the right thing to do? Is this the right time? Questions! Questions!

Wouldn't it be nice to get some solid advice from a risk taker who knows what he's talking about? Bill Treasurer understands risk--from a variety of perspectives. He's a consultant-who formed his practice during a weak economy. Risk. Prior to that, he was a corporate executive with income in the six-figure range, yet he took the big leap of going into business for himself. From 1984-1991 he traveled the world as a member of the United States High Diving Team, performing some 1500 dives from heights over 100 feet (think ten story building). For years, he was also known as the fire-diving superhero, Captain Inferno. He dove dressed in a costume with a cape drenched in gasoline. With the strike of a match, he was transformed into a flying human torch. Risk.

You don't have to leap from tall buildings to take risks. They're all around us. The key, Treasurer asserts, is taking the right risks at the right time for the right reasons. His ten principles about risk taking, each presented in a separate chapter, guide readers through a process of evaluating the risks, obstacles, and the process to overcome fear and doubt in the right way. Each chapter presents one of Treasurer's principles, illustrated with anecdotes from his life and risk-taking experiences of others. Good stuff--highly readable, educational and thought-provoking. Each of the principle chapters concludes with a set of questions to stimulate additional thinking and assessment.

The closing statements of the book-the final chapter-emphasize the critical importance of being authentic. Kidding yourself is the biggest risk of all. Treasurer shares some valuable philosophies that put risk and its ramifications into perspective.

The book includes a good notes section and a surprisingly comprehensive index. As you consider all the risks that lie in your path-in work, your personal life, family endeavors, and so much more, the advice in this book will serve you well.

Do you have a fear of heights? Are you afraid of fire? Could you learn to dive from a hundred foot tower while your body was aflame? Despite having both of those fears, author Bill Treasurer successfully completed 1500 high dives (including hundreds while on fire) from sixty to one hundred feet over seven years. That experience helped him develop an understanding of how to overcome our fears when it makes sense for us to go ahead. The cover features a vivid demonstration of his experience. His diving provides a moving metaphor for each of us identifying our most limiting fears . . . and overcoming them to live our personal value systems.

While many books talk about fear and overcoming it, this one is special in that it does a better job than usual in explaining why some seek out dangerous risks and others avoid minor risks that could be life-transforming. I particularly liked Mr. Treasurer's argument that in a world where people primarily evaluate themselves and others by externals we become obsessed with one-upping ourselves and others for the temporary "high" that brings. Trouble is . . . we then need to do it again. Why not evaluate oneself by inner measures instead such as operating
with integrity in terms of one's values? It can be a lot more frightening to do that than to jump from the top of a tall platform while burning!

The book suggests ten principles and their related practices for taking the right risk: Become reacquainted with yourself (find your golden silence); break out of the mold (defy inertia); plan how you will overcome your fears to pursue worthy risks (write your risk scripts; build emotional incentives to change (turn on the risk pressure); put yourself where you have to perform (put yourself on the line); use your fear to help (make your fear work for you); develop your courage (have the courage to be courageous); accept your flaws (be perfectly imperfect); break through nominal boundaries (trespass continuously); and show your true colors to others (expose yourself).

Each principle has its own chapter along with riveting questions to help you focus on what you need to do.

I was especially impressed by the life scripts that most people use to define what they can and cannot do. I'm sure that Mr. Treasurer makes good use of these scripts to help his coaching clients.

Like the best self-help books, Mr. Treasurer is very candid about his own limitations. He makes important revelations about how he has struggled in relationships and in living with his beliefs in other areas that will help empower you to see how difficult it is to raise up and address these issues.

Nice job!

When I first saw the cover of this book, which features Bill Treasurer at the top of a high dive on fire as "Capatin Inferno," I wondered if I'd get much out of it. I wanted to learn about taking risks, but I already knew I had no interest in doing something dangerous. As it turns out, this was exactly the book I was looking for. Bill spells out in 10 beautifully written chapters how one goes about assessing risks and deciding when and how it makes sense to approach a new situation or even create one. The tips make a lot of sense but it's Treasurer's gift for organization of thought and his specific insight into each tip that make the book work.

Don't be fooled into thinking that you can't possibly have something in common with a man who used to light himself on fire and jump into a small pool of water. That's an extreme example of Bill's background and thought process. The truth is, his background as a consultant and entrepreneur give him even more credibility than his days as a diver. The combination of all of these things is what makes him insightful, entertaining, and even wise. My book is covered in yellow highlighted sentences. I keep it on my night stand and find it helpful to randomly select pages from it when I need to be reminded that my own risks, well taken, will be rewarded.

The Right Risk is right on target for anyone who wants to change their life for the better. Not only does the book provide a practical methodology for preparing to take the right risk, but it also provides a great deal of insight and motivation for those who are not accustomed to taking risks. The book helped me to gain a new found confidence in taking risks, while aiding me in starting my new business. Don't judge this book by its cover- it is entertaining, yet a serious life-changing catalyst! Well done Bill Treasurer.

There's an old story about a frog that sits on a lily pad, thinking about whether to jump to another lily pad to his left or the log to his right. He sits and thinks, sits and thinks. Eventually, because he never makes a decision, he turns to stone. That frog needed Bill Treasurer's book. RIGHT RISK helps readers face life's challenges with confidence and courage. Treasurer shares his wisdom through great writing and with compelling examples from his own experience as a member of the U.S. High Diving Team, making abundantly clear he knows a lot about risk taking. Read this book!

From the first pages of this book, I found myself reading more and more slowly. This book made me think. I was forced to assess my current status, and challenge what my I believed had been my real "risks" in life. Now I realize I play it safe. A lot.

This book came at a point where I was making a change in my career, and it helped me think about what I want to do and how to get there. I particularly liked Bill's concepts of Golden Silence and having a personal mantra. Sounds a little "groovy", I know, but these concepts are effective.

Armed with my new mantra ("challenge the assumption") and my high-lighted copy of Right Risk, I feel ready to be courageous as I face a career change. Thanks, Bill!

RIGHT RISK is one of the best, most practical books I've read in years. The author, Bill Treasurer, truly delivers upon his promise: He shows readers how to discover, plan for, and take the risks they know they must take in order to have a fulfilled life.

Treasurer -- at one time a professional daredevil, who routinely set himself on fire and jumped nine stories into a water tank, and who later became Accenture's first-ever internal executive coach -- distills his risk-taking wisdom into ten principles. Those principles include the following:

"Find Your Golden Silence," through which you brush aside mental chatter, and decide upon the proper risks for you.

"Defy Inertia," through which you overcome the natural human tendency to shun the work that risk requires.

"Write Your Risk Scripts," through which you escape the predictable, push-button ways you normally react in stressful situations.

"Trespass Continuously," through which you understand that obedience to others' standards may be the greatest risk of all, and pushing back is your safest option.

In the end, this book isn't just about how to take one or two specific risks. It's more about how to build character and live with what Treasurer calls "personal fidelity." It's about being your own person, and using the potential you know is there, only you haven't gotten around to using it yet. Writes Treasurer:

"An old maxim says the best way to be nothing is to do nothing. A lot of people prefer bragging how they could have been a contender to actually contending . . . While asserting your potential is much easier than living up to it, living in the shadow of your unused potential can be a dreadful burden. Both inertia and laziness leave scars of safety. Many a bar stool has been warmed by the seat of a man whose most taunting recollections are of risks he didn't take." (p. 57)

RIGHT RISK doesn't guarantee your success. Such a promise would be unrealistic. What it does do is knock you off your bar stool, and gets you out into the world, where you can take action. (...)

Some people are risk avoiders rather than risk takers, yet the regret that comes from lost opportunity can be far worse than the pain of not succeeding. Some of the signs of risk avoidance are procrastination, hesitation, being distracted, disorganization, and not being certain that your career is fulfilling your purpose in life.

Bill Treasurer says that you can create your best life - a life full and rich, that's high on rewards and low on regrets - by developing a solid framework for risk. And he should know, because he was a seven-year member of the U.S. High Diving Team and made over 1,500 giant leaps from 100 feet up - often fire-diving as "Captain Inferno" into shallow waters far below.

I interviewed Bill Treasurer on "The Inside Success Show" and was moved by his authenticity and genuineness. I see risk taking and risk avoidance in a new light. Blind Faith has new eyes!

Here are some other things I learned.

** How Bill Treasurer overcame is extreme fear of heights to jump into shallow water from 100 feet, while on fire.

** Why you need learn which risks are right for you and how to use the 4 P's to discover them

** How you can completely overcome your fears by risk scripting

** What risks you must not take if you want to stay alive

** Why risk takers earn far more money than risk avoiders

Taking risks is essential to growing personally and professionally and if you are ready to authentically live your purpose in life, and enjoy authentic abundance, then get this book and pay attention to this "on fire" man who reveals the secrets to successful risk taking.

Randy (Dr. Proactive) Gilbert, Host of The Inside Success Show (TheInsideSuccessShow.com) and best-selling author of "Success Bound"

In a word, Bill Treasurer's "Right Risk" is a gem. At once practical and soulful, it underscores the importance of taking risks and presents a guide for making wise, courageous choices. I took its message to heart. Now I'm making gutsier decisions that are rewarding me in spades, personally and professionally. If you're serious about growing and prospering, this book is for you. I highly recommend it.

Have you ever thought about changing jobs or your career? Is fear holding you back because of the risk involved? In this book, Bill Treasurer shows you how to break down and examine risk and make fear managable. There are some risks worth taking and some you can't afford not to take.

Mr. Treasurer uses examples from his own life as a high diver to explore risk. He also made a career change from working in the corporate world to starting his own consulting business. Even if "your risk" is something other than career related, this book is for you.

I came across the book at my local library. I was so impressed that I ordered a copy of my own so I could read it again and share it with others. It's written in a format (with questions at the end of each chapter) that is could be used as a small group study guide. Next to the bible, it may be the most potentially life changing book I've ever read. It's available on Amazon.com or you can purchase a signed copy via his web site http://www.giantleapconsulting.com.