Let’s start with the obvious. Can you predict your career path as clearly as your parent’s generation? How about how long your personal computer will be relevant before it becomes outdated? Guarantee that you or any of your family members won’t be involved in a crime in the next twelve months? Is it better to buy or rent your home? Will the performance of your trusted stock be as expected or do you need to look at the next big thing, say like biotech?

We live in time of shifting contexts. There is no "right" answer because it largely depends on your relative time and circumstance position. It is a time to embrace risk as something to be managed, or risk becoming a victim to it.

From banking to deciding whether or not it makes sense to purchase a hybrid car, risk is simply something that can’t be avoided. Why? Because today there are more variables that are less predictable simply by having more empowered people directly participating in the global economy. That is not about to change back to simpler times anytime soon.

We can wax philosophical about "the greatest risk is not taking one", etc. but the writing on the wall is even more profound than that. Risk has now come full circle from something to manage at a basic survival mode to requiring sophisticated tools to predict the next boom or catastrophe so we can take surefooted steps forward. We can leave natural disasters or terrorism up to the notion of luck, but as we all know that is highly unwise in times of infinite measurability.

Besides, luck is a matter of perspective.

Risk however is real and also lucrative if managed in your favor. In times of constant change managing risk well may just be the critical defining factor for success.