‘The biggest risk is the one you never take’

A final thought about risk on the way out.

Eleven years ago when Marketplace offered me a job, working the overnights hosting our morning show, I hesitated. I don’t know that I’ve ever told my boss this, now that I think about it. But I did hesitate. I had a good gig at the public radio station in San Francisco. I had little kids and had no desire to get up in the middle of the night to go to work.

So before I turned it down, I asked some people for advice. Some said take the job. Some said don’t go near it. The last person I talked to, though, was the one who sealed it. And even though you know how the story turns out, what he said kind of fits with the show today:

‘The biggest risk,’ he said, ‘is the one you never take.’