Why Accepting Risk Is the Only Way Forward for Innovators

Jan de Vries · 2026-08-10

There's a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in business circles: "no risk, no reward." It's catchy, sure, but it barely scratches the surface. The real conversation isn't just about taking risks—it's about how societies, as a whole, handle the fallout when things go wrong. Harry Margulies recently made a compelling argument that hits this nail on the head: risk isn't just a side effect of progress; it's the necessary price we pay for it. Think about it for a second. Every major technological leap, from the steam engine to the smartphone, came with a mountain of uncertainty. The people who built those things didn't have a guarantee of success. They had a hunch, a vision, and a willingness to potentially lose it all. If we, as a society, demand zero risk, we're essentially demanding zero innovation. We can't have one without the other. ### The Entrepreneur's Burden For entrepreneurs, this isn't abstract theory. It's the daily grind. You're putting your savings, your reputation, and your mental health on the line for an idea that might not work. In the United States, we have a cultural reverence for the "founder story," but we often gloss over the brutal reality of the journey. The fear of failure is real, and it's a heavy weight to carry. Margulies' point, though, goes deeper than just telling people to "man up" and take the leap. He's talking about the ecosystem around the entrepreneur. If a founder takes a swing and misses, what happens next? Do we shame them into obscurity, or do we give them the tools to dust off and try again? The answer to that question determines whether we get a society of builders or a society of spectators. ### Managing the Fallout Here's where the nuance comes in. Accepting risk doesn't mean being reckless. It means building a safety net that catches people when they fall, so they're willing to jump again. This is where policy and public opinion collide. A society that punishes failure harshly is a society that stagnates. A society that understands failure as a tuition fee for learning is a society that moves forward. - **Legal frameworks** need to allow for honest failure without crushing debt or stigma. - **Cultural attitudes** need to shift from "you failed" to "what did you learn?" - **Financial systems** need to support second acts, not just first-round funding. It's a delicate balance. We want to encourage bold moves, but we also don't want to create a Wild West where reckless behavior ruins lives. The goal isn't to eliminate risk; it's to manage it intelligently so that the potential upside is worth the potential downside. ### Why This Matters Right Now We're living in a time of rapid change. Artificial intelligence, climate tech, and biotech are all moving at warp speed. The opportunities are massive, but so are the unknowns. If we wait for perfect certainty before we act, we'll be waiting forever. The countries and regions that thrive in the next decade will be the ones that create environments where calculated risks are not just tolerated but actively encouraged. As Margulies suggests, this isn't just about economics. It's about the kind of society we want to live in. Do we want a society that plays it safe and slowly declines, or one that embraces the messy, uncertain, and thrilling process of building something new? The choice seems obvious when you put it that way. The price of progress is high. It's paid in sleepless nights, failed ventures, and tough lessons. But the cost of standing still is infinitely higher. We need to accept that risk is part of the deal, and then we need to get really good at managing it. That's the only way we'll ever get to the future we're all hoping for.