Loan officers who want to grow their mortgage business know that passion, determination, and hard work will drive their progress. But are those alone enough for success? When we look at top entrepreneurs and professionals across industries, we tend to see those traits are also accompanied by a willingness to take risks. Risk involves making a decision without the promise of a successful outcome. While careless risks can certainly destroy a business, thoughtful risks can fuel advancement. Read on for some insights into how loan officers can adopt a positive perspective on risk that will promote their success.
Taking Calculated Risks
When it comes to risk-taking for loan officers, it’s clear we’re not talking about gambling on your life savings or jumping out of a plane. For loan officers, calculating potential outcomes is a key step in most risks they choose to take. Healthy risks that promote business growth are not necessarily massive decisions to overhaul your business. Instead, they tend to be smaller choices to try something new without a guarantee of success. When taking a calculated risk, a loan officer looks at what’s at stake, what he might gain, and what could go wrong.
Embracing Innovation
Risk and innovation go hand in hand. If you want to stand out from the competition, grow your business, and stay ahead of the curve, you have to forge your own path. Doing so requires some risk. If you maintain the status quo, it’s unlikely you’ll see much business growth. Especially with such rapid advances in technology, our business strategies must be ready to adapt. From new marketing methods to creative digital tools, innovative ideas continue to offer more and more ways to enhance our performance as loan officers. To embrace innovation means to embrace countless opportunities for greater success. It also requires taking risks on new ideas, knowing that they may not always work out as you’d hoped.
Getting Uncomfortable
Your comfort zone is the worst place to be if you want to expand your business. You can’t expect to see change in your business if you don’t initiate change in your day to day practices. For many of us, that change can be uncomfortable. We often like routines, predictability, and comfort because they don’t pose any risk. If we can switch our mindset to one that better tolerates change and discomfort, we’ll dramatically increase our chances of success. The discomfort we need to endure to take healthy risks is usually minimal. It means putting yourself out there in new ways online, getting to networking events to meet new people, and regularly looking for ways to streamline and improve. While there is some risk in these activities (you may invest in an online campaign that fails, leave a networking event feeling like you didn’t connect, or change up a process and find it doesn’t work for you), there is so much more potential for reward (you may reach a wealth of new prospects with your online campaign, meet a valuable referral partner at a networking event, or free up some time by automating a process). Stepping out of your comfort zone with some calculated risks is stepping into the possibility for greater success.
Learning from Failure
There’s no denying that failure is a possible outcome when you take a risk. For many, that fact prevents them from taking risks at all. What the most successful professionals know is that failure contains a wealth of insights for future success. When you trust yourself to take calculated risks, risks in which the consequences of failure are manageable, you open yourself up to opportunities for more success. Don’t let the fear of failure stand in the way of growing your business. If you’re able to learn from failure, it can actually be a force that propels you forward. When a risk does go awry, take some time to reflect and see what you can learn. Not only will you gain some insight on your business strategies, you’ll also be refining your risk-taking process for the future.
Embracing new ideas can put you on the fast track to a thriving business, but only if you’re willing to take the risks necessary to put those ideas into practice. While you certainly don’t need to be a daredevil to grow a successful mortgage business, embracing a healthy level of calculated risk is key to preventing stagnation and fostering success. The good news is, even small risks can pay off, and the more you practice, the better you can refine your risk-taking skills.
