Risk is a term we use to describe the likelihood of a future event going bad.
To paraphrase, its general usage tends to focus on the potential harm that may arise from such an event.
In most cases if we say that an event or endeavor may be "risky" this commonly suggests a negative outcome.
However, we have all been exposed to the notion of upside risk.
This is a phrase used to suggest the benefit or potential related to this future event or endeavor.
Cosmetic Surgeons are asked to interpret risk for their clients every day.
The above definition does not begin to offer a reasonable explanation of risk when a breast augmentation client asks "Is it risky, doctor?" Our lives are filled with this analysis of risk.
The ultimate goal is to minimize risk while maximizing rewards (upside risk).
We conveniently refer to ourselves as risk takers and non-risk takers.
In most cases one need not affiliate with one side or another.
You become labeled by the profession you choose or the types of recreational activities you engage in.
It's similar to choosing a political affiliation.
The quality of life you lead boils down to the amount of risk you are consciously and subconsciously presented with daily.
It is this subconscious analysis of risk that makes us who we are.
It is in fact what defines our society.
Are you a risk taker? What kinds of risks are worth taking? If certain risks are worth taking then who takes them and for what or how much of a reward? Does a schoolteacher assume the same type of risk as a stockbroker? Does a professional athlete assume the same type of risk as a bus driver? Does your sister in California face the same risk as your brother in Kentucky? Is a musician as big a risk taker as an actor? These are examples only to illustrate the fact that we are all exposed to risks.
These may have a downside, but we choose to expose ourselves in order to achieve the benefits of their upside (Reward).
We rely on insurance companies to help better assess and to protect us from risk.
They contrive mathematical models to offer objective interpretations.
We pay unthinkable amounts of money to protect us from these risks yet we continue to insist on our exposure How about people who purchase homes on beautiful mountainsides located above known faultlines.
People who smoke two packs of cigarettes a day cling to their daily 9 to 5 to hold on to those valuable employee healthcare benefits.
Weekend warriors get their exercise by biking 10 miles without a helmet on busy congested streets of major metropolitan cities.
Those same streets with the millions of drivers listening to music, talking on their cell phones, text messaging, and eating their drive-through lunches.
The risks of cosmetic surgery can then only be interpreted as those relative to your everyday risk.
Any surgery carries with it risk.
The operating room is the ultimate theatre for the dress rehearsal of life.
For the most part cosmetic surgeons do much better than insurance companies in evaluating, predicting and addressing risks associated with their elective procedures.
This "upside risk" is why cosmetic surgery is even more popular than living on faultlines.