Luke Johnson on Risk

11.30am, Sunday 31 May 2009
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1

Serial entrepreneur and self-confessed maverick, Luke Johnson has taken more risks in life than most. And he’s not about to stop in these uncertain economic times.
 
The danger of a recession, Luke argues, is that we lose the courage to make the change we want to see in the world. There's no question things are bad. The easy money is all gone, and there will be no more for a long time. But that does not mean we should stop taking risks. Risk may have got us into this mess but it’s risk that will get us out of it too. We need to practice it now more than ever.
 
Luke is the first to admit that every gamble implies jeopardy as well as possibility. It’s the very nature of risk taking and entrepreneurism that some projects won’t work and others will. But hard times can bring out the best in entrepreneurs and reveal all kinds of opportunities. Luke will share his hard-earned wisdom on which risks to take and which to steer clear of, urging us to treat life as an adventure which rewards those who treat it most boldly.
 
If you feel impending redundancy might be the opportunity to ‘seize the day’, want to buck the trend and start your own business this year, or simply get exasperated by the endless advice to be cautious, come and hear Luke preach the good news about risk.
 
Luke Johnson is Chairman of Channel 4 Television, the RSA and Risk Capital Partners. He writes a weekly column on entrepreneurship for the Financial Times and wrote for the Sunday Telegraph for eight years. He has also owned companies in leisure, recruitment, dentistry and retailing as well as numerous restaurants.

http://www.lukejohnson.org/