This hurts me more than it hurts you

Everything I wrote after this paragraph is in the trash. Risky Tales is fictional stories about stuff that might have happened, or could happen today. Things that might give you goose bumps or curl your toes. Or I might write about how companies fail.

Here’s the boring original mission of Risky Tales (I prefer the short stories). I might write some of this stuff too:

My resume. I looked at it the other day and good luck to the recruiter who’s got the job of verifying my employment. I mean the first company I ever worked for in college no longer exists. Also the first company I worked for out of college. And the second. I started a company in 1995, sold it in 2000, and it no longer exists. The company that bought it no longer exists, but what’s weird is the second company I started sold to a company with the same name, no lie.

Most of the companies that no longer exist are not around for a reason. That their management sucks is one of those reasons, but specifically, why do they suck? Mainly, because they fail to do proper risk management. Me included.

For years I was under the false and completely pumped up our backsides labeled as sunshine idea that risky, big bet ventures are the reason good companies succeed and bad companies die. No. The miser who hires barely competent, but generally trustworthy people who work there until their bony hands curl with arthritic spasms runs the company that makes him rich. Then again, the owner who builds a buggy whip factory and runs it as well as a buggy whip factory could be run. Kodak, you know.

There’s a whole organization living underground that celebrates the stories of the winners, and the losers. Check out the group known in more proper language by its acronym “FUN.”

Here, I aim to dive into the deep waters of bad risk management, and how good risk management can make the world a better place. Or at least make you less sad about it.

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