Swiffering the floor of my castle the other day, I got to thinking about risk.

My attitude towards risk is unique (I think) in that every risk I take is carefully calculated, and I have a fallback plan so undesirable I’d rather suffer the consequences of failure than use it.

Because everyone loves examples, three specific events jumped to mind as I collected dog hair, crumbs, and assorted household dirt into a pile:

1. Slinging my last Starbucks latte and giving “The Man” a stiff middle finger

When I dove headlong into this entrepreneurship game, I had 3 things:

– ~$1000 sitting in savings

– Enough guaranteed income from my own ventures to cover my expenses for the next two months

– An absurdly strong belief that I’d figure out how to sustain, build, and grow as I went

With such little certainty, there’s no doubt that leaving Starbucks when I did to build my (former) fitness business, MASSthetics, was one helluva gamble.

My fallback plan was—if necessary—to drag my sad sack of a broke ass back to Starbucks and start banging out the best cappuccinos in town.

A viable option?

Yes.

One that I would rather be tea-bagged by Mr. Donald Trumpy than have to act on?

Absolutely.

Next example:

2. Deciding—after one Skype call, a handful of texts, and a few exchanged comments on a mutual friends Facebook status—to commit to living with a complete stranger (Hi, Alicia) in Phuket, Thailand for two months

Looking back, it makes for a fantastic story to tell.

But at the time, all manner of things could have gone horribly wrong, and I (we) would be stuck on the other side of the planet, in unfamiliar territory, both being in the process of building a business.

Financial stress + unfamiliar location + living in close quarters with a stranger = RISK with a whole lotta red flags.

My escape plan here was that I had enough flight reward points for a one-way ticket back to my parents.

Again, not exactly desirable.

Lastly:

3. Pulling the plug on my fitness business to focus on copywriting

This was the most calculated risk of all in that I knew from tracking my income, what I was earning via writing projects was eclipsing that of my fitness business.

Still, the thing with freelancing is that—especially in the beginning—you don’t know when or where your clients are going to come from.

And it’s on you to figure out how to make that happen.

Which is why in the first Sorcerers Guild Secret Scroll—releasing on October 13th—I’m revealing a process for stuffing your schedule with freelance copywriting clients who will happily pay you four-figures (or more!) to write emails, autoresponders, and sales letters.

A process so simple the village idiot could do it.

To get a jump on the village idiot and beat Saturday’s deadline, go ye here:

http://sorcerersguildnewsletter.com/

Yours sorcerously,

Alexander Mullan