The #1 international bestselling author of The Gray Rhino offers a bold new framework for understanding and re-shaping our relationship with risk and uncertainty to live more productive and successful lives.
What drives a sixty-four-year-old woman to hurl herself over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Why do some people wait until the last minute to get to the airport while others get there much earlier than they need to? Why do entrepreneurs thrive in the face of uncertainty, while others cringe at the thought of leaving a stable nine-to-five job? Why are some countries quicker than others to face up to risks like pandemics, technological change, and climate crisis?
The answers to these questions define each person, organization, and society as distinctively as a fingerprint. Our risk fingerprints are a critically important but overlooked catalyst for innovation and creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and success. They explain why we seize opportunities and avert obvious dangers –or succumb to stagnation, fear and failure. We ignore them at our peril, yet traditional risk management
In You Are What You Risk, Wucker examines why we avoid risk, when we should embrace it, and how we can re-examine our relationship with uncertainty, danger, and opportunity for both personal and professional success.
Risk-takers are motivated by factors as broad as culture and values, as specific as their personalities and past experiences, and as strategic as calculations about how much they have to gain or lose. But the deciding factor in whether they make good or bad bets lies in their awareness of the often-unconscious influences on their perceptions, choices, and behaviors.
Drawing on the stories of risk takers around the globe, and integrating economic, anthropological, sociological, and psychological insights, this ground-breaking and accessible book offers a completely new way to understand and face a changing world.
Wucker reveals insights, practical tools, and proven strategies that will help readers seize ownership of risk and make better choices, whether big and small. She shows how the new science of “risk personality” is beginning to shape business and finance, drawing on examples of activists, businesses, and countries seeking to create a healthy risk ecosystem that supports creativity, innovation, and positive entrepreneurship.
You Are What You Risk answers important questions: Why are some people good at averting crises at work but a mess in their personal lives? Why are we more likely to take chances when we are part of a group than when on our own? Are we born with our risk attitudes or do we pick them up along the way? What is the right amount of uncertainty to live with?
Risk decisions have never been more crucial, particularly in a world where political turmoil, economic insecurity, technological transformation, and climate change have exposed us to unprecedented levels of vulnerability. You Are What You Risk is a clarion call for a new approach to risk, one that will surprise and challenge us as we look towards the future.
In the US: Pegasus Books (April 2021)
International English: Simon & Schuster International (May 2021)
Audio: Oasis (April 2021)
China: CITIC (2021)
Taiwan: Commonwealth (2021)
South Korea: Mirae Books (2022)
Pre-order HERE or at your favorite bookseller.