In your youth, you need to take risk to advance your career, whether you work for GM or work for yourself. However, you should be conservative in finance, live below your means and let compounding does its magic.in other words, when you are young you need to be conservative! not in the sense of putting money in bank CDs, but in the sense of following the proven path to wealth - climb the corp ladder to a director / VP position asap! or gather enough skill and become independent consultant ASAP!
In a big corporation, you don't become a VP by being conservative and play it safe. You need to take risk to be noticed. There are typically 3-4 levels from a worker to a VP. The probability of becoming a VP is 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 10,000, not a high probability, proven path to high pay and wealth if you don't take risk. IMHO, the right philosophy is to take risk: Up or out, because you don't have a lifetime to wait if you want to be in charge.
