Risking: How to Take Chances and Win
Author: David S., Viscott
List Price: $8.95
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ISBN: 0671226193
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December, 1977)
Sales Rank: 1,111,762
Average Customer Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Never Consider the Possibility of Failure
Although "Risking" by David Viscott is flawed inrepects to gender equality and sensitivity, it is a worthwhile booknonetheless. Business speaker Dennis Kimbro writes in his online-work "21 keys to success" the following: #5--Never Consider the possibility of Failure--Dare to go forward. The fear of failure is the major reason for failure in adult life. Self-millionaires are not gamblers but they're always willing to take the calculated risk. Ask yourself this question as you proceed: "What is the worst possible thing that could happen if I go ahead? In what areas of your personal or business life could a fear of failur be holding you back?"Viscott lists the key components of risk and goes through them in his work. The Table Contents give notice to the various types of risk to consider.
Taking chances Patterns of Risking The Moment of Risk Evaluating Your Risk Emotional Risks Risks of Growth Risks of Autonomy Risks of Change Risks of Sharing and Closeness Risks of Love Risks of Control Risks of Esteem The Do's and Dont's of Risking
I would suggest finding the book at all costs. (I still don't know why the book was on the shelves when I bought it seeing that it is out of print.) It should be brought back into publication because it is timely and necessary
By the way, the author does dedicate the book thusly, "For Teddy and Judy Kaplan" Therefore, how can the previous reviewer state that a person is selfish even though they dedicate the book to two people and have the following quote, among many, is beyond me.
p.212--Do give other people credit for helping you--You'll make allies out of people who want to help you. You need all the friends you can get when you risk, and the best friends are those who have already given. Return the gift with thanks. Friends who feel slighted can do you more damage than enemies."
A book worth its weight in Platinun, 1000 times over. It got 4 stars only because of the lack of gender sensitivity in some parts Mind you the paper back copy is copyrighted for 1979. Other wise it is an extremely useful work. Among my personal top 10 books read.
END
Rating: 1 out of 5
Selfishness as a Worldview
David Viscott's Risking includes an excellent analysis of why people do not take risks. Behind every risk, Viscott says, there is a fear of loss. Most people will not take a risk because they fear one of three kinds of loss in life -- love, control, or esteem.(33) Risks concerning love could lead to a loss of love or the belief that one is unlovable. Risks concerning control, usually taken in a business context, might lead to a loss of power, influence, or strength. Risks concerning esteem could result in loss of face or the high regard of others.(50) Most people will not engage in a risky behavior because they perceive that what they could lose in love, control, or esteem is not worth the risk. Viscott's contention is that by not risking, a person will inevitably lose more than the failure of the risk itself. Unfortunately, Risking does not contain a compelling argument to support his claim. Risk is inevitable, Viscott says, and a person must know himself thoroughly in order to understand how to manage it. This thorough self-knowledge, as Viscott describes it, is profoundly self-centered. This selfish, narcissistic worldview permeates Risking. Viscott provides no methodology to determine if a risk is worthwhile except that it feels right: "you are the way you feel". (31) "Some people maybe object to this view," he says, "calling it narrow-minded and selfish, but if you don't take care of yourself, why should anyone else?" (25) In taking care of himself, and using his own desires as a measure, Viscott focuses almost exclusively on the rightness of risking and does not discuss the potential deterrents, including other people's feelings. For example, Viscott believes that risk has a "point of no return," when retreat is not possible. Using an extended metaphor of cars passing on a two-lane road, the point of no return is when the driver has "no choice but to accelerate, sound your horn and create a safe place for yourself."(67) That safe place was created by other drivers scattering to get out of his way. Other people must handle his emotional baggage: "if someone hurts you, it is your emotional obligation to express your hurt in a direct way, to make the other person aware of your feelings . . . Once you tell the other person how you feel, stand back and observe how he deals with the truth you have presented." (93) Viscott has no mechanism for determining if he really knows the truth or how he is going to incorporate information he might receive from the other person. His is a completely closed information loop; he does not allow other people to challenge his decisions. Viscott's self-centeredness was quite popular in the late 1970's and 80's. It would be wrong to blame him for all the excesses of the 80's "Me Generation" but it is difficult to read sentences like "A person who wastes his life denying himself out of a mistaken sense of duty is only diminishing himself and hurting others in the process . . . He sees himself as a person with responsibilities toward others first and uses that overblown obligation to excuse his failure to fulfill his own potential and to avoid taking risks." (25) Looking out for number one led many men to leave their wives and children to fulfill their own potential and stop wasting their lives with duty and responsibility. Nowhere in Risking does Viscott acknowledge that taking a risk that puts other people in jeopardy is not acceptable and that putting others before oneself is the definition of a mature, adult person. Viscott's use of language reveals another sort of self-centeredness and, perhaps, misogyny. Risking was written in 1977, which is too early to expect the use of mixed gendered pronouns and, in fact, Viscott uses "he" throughout. His examples of typical behavior, however, indicate that he is truly writing for a male audience and has a strange view of child development. For example, an adolescent "learns to accept some parts of himself as good that he formerly may have rejected - like the artistic interest he once considered 'sissy.'" (29) Since girls generally do not consider art "sissy," this adolescent is a boy. However, parents of infants, especially neglectful ones, are female: "If a child is cared for by a parent who is inconsistent in her nurturing or who is emotionally absent, unaffectionate or passive when she does give, that infant will be come an adult who cannot trust or who will constantly see the love he lacked in all the wrong places and the wrong way." (35) In Risking, women serve only as negative role models. Viscott sums up his theory in a checklist in the back of the book that includes the do's and don'ts of risking. Don't, for example, give up too soon and do give other people credit for helping you. Predictably, Risking does not contain any author's acknowledgements. Similar Products
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