From an Address by Charles S. Sanford, Jr. - June 17, 1989 - Delivered at the Commencement Exercises of the University of Georgia - Sanford Stadium, Athens, Georgia

Thank you, President Knapp, members of the faculty, administration, the class of 1989, its family and friends.

President Knapp has drawn attention to the fact that much of my life and career have been involved with taking risks. It’s the sort of introduction which usually arches a few eyebrows. A person who takes risks for a living calls up the image of a riverboat gambler, someone who lives on the edge—in the chips today, down on his luck tomorrow.

From an early age, we are all conditioned by our families, our schools, and virtually every other shaping force in our society to avoid risk. To take risks is inadvisable; to play it safe is the counsel we are accustomed both to receiving and to passing on. In the conventional wisdom, risk is asymmetrical: it has only one side, the bad side. In my experience—and all I presume to offer you today is observations drawn on my own experience, which is hardly the wisdom of the ages—in my experience, this conventional view of risk is shortsighted and often simply mistaken.

My first observation is that successful people understand that risk, properly conceived, is often highly productive rather than something to avoid. They appreciate that risk is an advantage to be used rather than a pitfall to be skirted. Such people understand that taking calculated risks is quite different from being rash.

This view of risk is not only unorthodox, it is paradoxical—the first of several paradoxes which I’m going to present to you today. This one might be encapsulated as follows: playing it safe is dangerous. Far more often than you would realize, the real risk in life turns out to be the refusal to take a risk. In other words, the truly most threatening dangers usually arise when you shrink from confronting what only appear to be the most threatening dangers. What is widely regarded as “playing it safe” turns out not to be safe at all.

I’m suggesting that you take a positive view of risk. This is not a suggestion addressed only to those of you who may be planning a career in financial services, or for that matter even a career in business. It’s addressed to everyone, regardless of career plans, because my main interest is not your careers. My focus is—and yours should be—on what you do with your lives.

Whatever you may think at this point, choices about your career and choices about your life are not automatically the same choices. You have probably given a good deal more thought to your career than you have to your life. I’m suggesting that you take more time to think about your life, even though your thoughts won’t by any means be irrelevant to your career.

What I’m offering here is not a sure–fire, guaranteed formula for success. No such formula exists. It never will. If anyone ever tries to sell you one, keep your money in your pocket. For life, above all else, is a risk.

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