The Risk Advantage: Embracing the Entrepreneur's Unexpected Edge

Tom Panaggio

River Grove Books,  November 2013

The unexpected edge for entrepreneurial success starts with identifying a worthy risk, then having the courage to take it.

As an entrepreneur and racecar driver, Tom Panaggio has learned that you cannot avoid risk if you want to be a winner.

In The Risk Advantage, Panaggio tells the story of how he and his business partners built two thriving companies: Direct Mail Express (which now employs over 400 people and is a leading direct marketing company) and Response Mail Express (which was eventually sold to an equity fund, Huron Capital Partners). With The Risk Advantage he aims to help entrepreneurs face the many situations, predicaments, and crises they'll encounter during their life, and to help formulate their leadership style and business strategy.

When the right opportunities presented themselves, writes Panaggio, he and his business partners  were willing to embrace the risk because they knew that it was the only way to get themselves in a position to win. And once in the lead they focused not on what was behind them, but what lay ahead.

The Risk Advantage is a story about an entrepreneurial journey that explores the relationship between opportunity and risk, two important forces that are necessary for success. If you have the courage to embark on your own entrepreneurial journey, you will need a unique advantage to succeed in such a competitive and unforgiving environment. You must have an edge. The unexpected edge for entrepreneurial success starts with identifying a worthy risk, and then having the courage to take it. In his book, Panaggio identifies those risks based on the experiences of his own journey.

Opportunities are always there for you to grab. If you want to realize a dream, accomplish a daunting goal, or simply start your own business, you must be willing to embrace risk. Learning the lessons of The Risk Advantage is an important first step on that journey.