Risk Elimination Over Risk Taking

“He is the greatest entrepreneurial businessman I’ve come across, head and shoulders above everyone else, with a very clear vision of what needs to be done. And though it may have looked from the outside as if he took great risks, he was actually very risk-averse; in fact he basically eliminated risk. He did his homework carefully, so that even though Tappendens was the biggest transaction that any of us had been involved with, we didn’t see it as a huge gamble.”

“Most importantly, he never had everything riding on any particular deal, so we never faced ruin if it didn’t go according to plan. That was very important. The stress came not from worrying where our next meal would come from if the worst happened, but at the thought of missing out on wonderful gains that were almost within his grasp.”