Risk Management Reports

February, 2000 Volume 27, No. 2

The Great Risks
My good friend and reader in Milledgeville, Georgia, Dr. David Block, suggests three great risks of existence, to which I have added animal descriptors. They are: (1) The Ostrich: to take no risks. (2) The Grasshopper: to believe that there are no risks (with the corollary that all is predictable). (3) The Mule: To accept the risks that are given to us as the risks we must face.	Practicing risk managers should avoid acting like any one of these animals. Balance exploration, caution and skepticism in equal measure, perhaps like an Owl or like the Hedgehog from the aphorism of Archilochus. These three great risks remind me of the old prayer: "Oh Lord, give me the courage to change the things that must be changed, the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other."

The Great Risks

My good friend and reader in Milledgeville, Georgia, Dr. David Block, suggests three great risks of existence, to which I have added animal descriptors. They are:

(1) The Ostrich: to take no risks.
(2) The Grasshopper: to believe that there are no risks (with the corollary that all is predictable).
(3) The Mule: To accept the risks that are given to us as the risks we must face.

Practicing risk managers should avoid acting like any one of these animals. Balance exploration, caution and skepticism in equal measure, perhaps like an Owl or like the Hedgehog from the aphorism of Archilochus.

These three great risks remind me of the old prayer: "Oh Lord, give me the courage to change the things that must be changed, the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other."

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