The world has seen many risk takers over time. They may not have tried high roller slots but these people took a leap of faith and risked a lot and still came out as winners.
Henry Ford
A young 23-year-old engineer named Henry Ford dreamt of building an affordable car. At the time, horseless carriages were a luxury so Ford’s dream seemed impossible. He moved on to create the Quadricycle, establish the Ford Motor Company, and build the Model A. Despite hardships and several failed attempts, he finally built the Model T, a reliable car that people could afford. A few years later, he was able to create a mass-production plant to churn out cars fast enough as demand was quite high. From being an unknown engineer to an unreliable one to becoming a successful inventor and businessman, Ford took many risks to become one of the most prominent names in the automotive industry.
JK Rowling
Born Joanne Rowling, she started writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone while waiting for her train. She wrote the novel from 1990 to 1995, during which she experienced some of the highest and lowest points in her life. At one point, she was a jobless, separated single mother who was diagnosed with clinical depression and lived on social welfare. After she wrote the book, her manuscript was rejected over and over again. Despite all her failures and the rejections, she pursued writing. In 1996, Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book but was still told to get a day job. Five months after its publication in 1997, the book won several awards. In 1998, Scholastic Inc. won the right to publish the book in the US and the rest was history.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is one of the foremost names in technology. When the internet was just in its infancy, he dropped out of his PhD program in energy and physics at Stanford University to launch Zip2. He earned USD 22 million when the company was sold. He then went on to establish X.com and Paypal. He earned USD 165 million when Paypal was bought by eBay. Then in 2001, he ventured into the space exploration business. Using USD 100 million of his earnings, he established SpaceX in 2002. In 2008, it won a USD 1.6 billion contract from NASA. He used USD 20 million from SpaceX to join the board of directors of Tesla in 2004. In 2016, he bought SolarCity through Tesla for USD 2.1 billion. Musk has been known to take calculated risks and he does not look like he is going to slow down soon.
Sir Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Hillary has gone down in history as the first man ever to reach the peak of Mt. Everest. Along with Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the duo climbed the highest point on earth on May 29, 1953, after several attempts have failed. In 1958, he joined the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, reaching the South Pole and the North Pole respectively, making him the first man to do so and climb Mt. Everest as well.
