Taking Risks

The URL below, penned by Seth Godin, is his take on risks:
http://tinyurl.com/yhmvwyx
As usual, Seth's words got me thinking.
First, the picture on the right. It's of my son Ryan, when he was about 4 years old. My brother Paul took the picture and I've always loved it. A friend said to me not long ago when he spied this picture "whoa, that looks risky." Well, I suppose it does a bit. But Ryan didn't think so and I guess my brother didn't either. When Ryan took that step, I don't think he understood the risk or possible consequences if his balance was off. Most of us took many risks when we were younger and learned from them in the process. I'm sure there's some cool graphic illustration out there that shows the correlation between age and risk. For some people, as they mature, their appetite for risk decreases, for others, not so much. Tiger Woods, for reasons we may never know or understand, allegedly made a number of very risky decisions that had nothing to do with how he was going to play a particular hole on a golf course. Crazy on so many levels. On a less dramatic scale, but still crazy, are the decisions that small and large companies make when thinking about marketing. There are those that forge ahead of their competition with continued or even increased marketing efforts and there are others that would rather ride out the current economic climate without a marketing strategy in place. That's risky. I'm not sure if that will hurt your marriage, but I know it will hurt your brand.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.