There are no professional risks, only the losing face potentials.

I took a risk, a professional kind.

I decided to show up at a place without making an appointment after waiting to hear back from a professional contact.

After applying for a job and waiting close to half a year and only the generic rejection responses (numerous application numbers, highly competitive process, etc) I wanted to know the WHY part of the rejection outcome.

• Why was I rejected?
• Why was my application not competitive enough?
• Why, Why, Why?

After sending out and asking for feedback, I did not get any responses. I had two options: 1. just forget the whole thing. 2. get the feedback on my application.

I decided to go with the second option; physically showing up at a place to talk to anyone about my application.  

The idea of showing up without the appointment felt uncomfortable…almost like a (professional) RISK. Thinking about the potential scenario of “shutting the door on my face” felt real in the uncomfortable situation I was about to create.

While mulling over the pros and cons of an “unusual” style of meeting(?), I started to think about the word, risk. Am I creating a professional risk? What are the potential risks I should consider?  Or, is this even a risk?

Definitions of the word, risk states as follows:

• something you could lose
• potential injury, loss
• a chance of something bad to happen

Driving through the red lights or throwing food at tigers at a zoo surfaced in my mind thinking about the true meaning of the word, risk. These examples have huge, dangerous consequences which are also irreversible.

On the other hand, my attempt at showing up at a place without an appointment does not seem that dangerous or consequential…even though, shutting the door in my face can have potential physical harm:-) 

Then, why am I considering my act of showing up as a risk?

It is not a risk, rather it is about “saving face”; it is my unconscious way of protecting myself from a potentially uncomfortable, even embarrassing situation.  

Instead of doing the difficult, but right thing to do, I was trying to persuade myself to take the easy, comfortable approach to resolve(?) the difficult professional situation.

There are many true risks in our lives, however, taking the professional ones is rarely the risk. In fact, they are necessary ingredients in our growth, professional and more importantly personal capacity.

Pushing myself to do the losing face act produced a positive outcome even though I did not get the feedback. By the way, the door shutting in front of my face thing did not happen:-)

Stay tuned for a longer blog piece on my risk-taking story!