Katie: What prompted you to write this book?

Dr. Carson: Well, we’ve become such a risk adverse
society, that a lot of people are afraid of just venturing out.
They listen to the insurance people, their lawyers, and all
the people on T.V. and then clam up. The problem is of
course—that great things are never accomplished without
taking risk. So consequently, if we stop taking risk we are
going to stop accomplishing great things. I really started
thinking about it a lot after the” Bijani Twins” case (the
Iranian Siamese Twins), because I thought about the kind
of risk they were taking, although they understood the
possible outcome. As I tried to place myself in their shoes,
I came to understand that for them—this was equivalent
to being sentenced to prison camp. And I don't believe
that any of us, would have a problem understanding why
a person would risk life and limb to escape that type of
circumstance. Latter, I also began to think about how the
situation became clearer to me when it was better explained--
and how most of us could use some type of tool to help
us analyze situations and ask the right questions, as
opposed to just saying that the situation is to risky.

Katie: You mentioned in your book, that many simply don’t realize their potential and miss the great adventure of living
their lives to the fullest, because they are so “risk adverse”.
In your opinion, what are some of the key factors
contributing to this phenomenon?

Dr. Carson: I think that one of our key problems, is the fact that
the media is just all over everything now, so as soon as there's something like a case of salmonella somewhere, they go “oh no,
don’t eat the tomatoes”. But the likelihood of something like that
affecting us is really incredibly small. Later, we may hear about
an airplane crash, and everyone becomes afraid to fly. But if you
think about it, your chances of being killed in an airplane crash
are like four in a million. Where as every time you get into your
car and drive down the street, one in every twenty-five drivers
you encounter are legally drunk, and your life is in much greater
danger. Blowing out of proportion those kinds of things for the
sake of sensationalism—is one thing. Another factor, is that in
this country, we have this enormous proliferation of lawyers, and
defining and regulating everything—generates a lot more activity
for them. Unfortunately, if we are producing an inordinate amount
of lawyers, they have to have something to do. Which is to make
rules, regulate, litigate, and to create tension. So that everyone
wants to sue someone or feel that they need to be compensated
for something, and that’s the natural consequence—so we really shouldn’t be surprised. So, of course, if we are fearful of things happening, we are going to spend more time trying to keep some-
thing from happening than trying to accomplish anything.

Katie: Obviously the idea of taking risk requires a case
by case assessment. What constitutes a good risk as
opposed to a bad risk?

Dr. Carson: With a good risk you must be able to foresee
good coming out of it, and the likelihood of success has to be
greater than the likelihood of failure. For one thing you must
have a pretty good definition of what’s a good outcome as
opposed to a bad one. This all depends on your sense of value.
If the most important thing to you is to make a lot of money,
and to have a fancy title, what’s good or bad for you is going
to be different from someone who is interested in improving
the environment for the people around them. So therefore, you
clearly have to know who you are and what your value system
is, in order to ask the types of questions that will allow you to
make a proper assessment.

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