Recently, I have been asked to describe a time when I took a great risk and describe the outcome.
While I don’t necessarily consider myself as a risk-seeker, I would not consider myself as a risk-averse as well. I’d say I had my fair share of calculated risk-taking. I moved to Singapore when I was 17 to study in Nanyang Technological University. I have no family back in Singapore, although, I knew quite a bit of friends there and Jakarta is only an hour flight out. I’ve done some investing, in the amount of about a year salary, on a business that supposedly to be very, very safe, which in turn gone poof and lost all my investment. I moved to Copenhagen where I didn’t know a single soul before, albeit with a job offer from Microsoft in hand.
In any case, none of these experience top the decision my wife and I made 3+ years ago, which is to have our first child. I would definitely consider that to be in my top two greatest risks I had and will ever made.
Why would I rate that so high? After all, it is very normal for human to pro-create and care for another human being. It has been done many, many years before, by billions of people, so one could argue it is very normal and there is no risk involved at all.
For my wife and I, when we took the decision to try and have our own child, we have a picture of what is going to happen. We knew that what we decided to do was to bring a new life to this world. For a start, we knew that there’s a chance that we would not be able to procreate. We knew despite all the advancement of modern medicine and technology, there’s always the risk of something could go wrong with the pregnancy. There’s always the risk during the delivery. And if you think that is all, then you’re wrong. That is just the start. Once the baby is born, when the new life is brought to this world, then the journey has just started. You will have to care for him/her for the rest of your/their life. There’s so much you can (and will) do to ensure that he/she will grow up the in the best environment, with the best provision, and the best care you can give. But there’s always a risk where he/she could go astray, affected by the peer and other factors. The commitment we made is a life-long and the risks involved are endless. Some of the risk you can try to mitigate, but others you just have to accept and plan for them.
That’s why, for me, the decision to have our own child, is definitely in my top two greatest risks – the other being to decide to have our second child. 🙂
Having said all that, I would say the outcome has been tremendously rewarding. While I couldn’t take full credit for how well my 3 and 1 year old are doing right now, they have been a constant joy and light in our small family. The opportunity to be able to provide care for them, to impart skills, knowledge, and wisdom, to see them smile for little accomplishments, are something that cannot be quantified with any amount of money.
Jonathan Sanito 