What Entrepreneurs Get Wrong About Risk (And Why I Don’t Believe in Safety Nets)

The biggest risk I ever took was borrowing $4,000 to buy a clicker press. And looking back now... it feels kinda stupid that I was so scared!!

But that moment taught me everything I know about risk: Without it, you cannot grow.

Risk is baked into everything.

Staying at your job is risky. Leaving your job is risky.

Going to college is risky.Not going is also risky!!

Launching a business is risky. Working for someone else for 40 years is risky!

There is no safe path.

There is only the path you choose… and what you get to learn from it.

This brings me to something I say a lot and that makes people angry until they realize I am right:

I do not believe in fundraising.

Stop stacking up investors like you are collecting trophies!!

Money is not the solution to your problems!

You think you are buying freedom… but you’re actually buying pressure.

And not the fun kind!!

When people give you money, they want one thing in return:

More money.

That is fine. That is the game they chose to play.

But it’s not the game you should be playing when you’re trying to build something awesome!!

Because the moment you take investor money, everything changes.

1. You will stop building from a place of growth…and you start building from a place of fear. Let me tell you exactly what that looks like:

2. You will stop making the long-term decisions your company actually needs.

3. No more experimenting! This means you will stop failing fast enough to evolve.

And the worst part? You will start obsessing over looking smart and trying to prove that the people with the money didn’t back the wrong horse!

Now tell me.. Is that what you want?

Money should not be the mission.

Money is the consequence…. the natural byproduct of building something great…

Something that solves real problems and makes people stop and say, “Damn, I want that!!”

But you don’t get there if you’re scared of risk.

And you definitely don’t get there if you outsource your courage to investors.

Risk is the price of growth.

Take the risk.

Learn whatever you need to learn.

And then move forward!!

Bigger, smarter, and braver than you were yesterday!!

That is the game. - Curtis Matsko - CEO & Founder of Portland Leather Goods