Personal Finance

Jim Rohn says "If you're not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary" - should you be taking more risk?

David Beren

Published: March 12, 2025 11:47 am

Entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker, and family man, Jim Rohn was many things to many people, seemingly excelling at all of them. Born to a poor family, by the time Rohn turned 30, he was already a millionaire, but his story doesn’t end here. 

Although he may have been a millionaire early on, he went broke shortly after. The good news is that this story has a good ending as Jim Rohn became a millionaire once again, and this level of success makes him well worth listening to. 

Jim’s Famous Quote

While Jim Rohn has many famous quotes and sayings, one of his most popular is undoubtedly when he said “If you’re not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” 

As soon as you hear this quote, it stands to reason that most people will immediately agree with this line of thinking. There are very few success stories where the person telling the story talks about how they played it safe and made it. Instead, you often find that the people with the best stories to tell took risks, sometimes outside their comfort zone, but they took the leap of faith anyway. 

What Is Ordinary? 

If you think about what is ordinary outside of its dictionary definition, it’s the safe and comfortable space we stay in, as not to rock the boat. This means that we don’t want to do anything that might put us out in the world in a way that might risk our own level of comfort and financial situation. 

In other words, ordinary means playing it safe and not taking risks that could upset the status quo. This is not at all where someone wants or should live. Life is all about taking chances, and even if nobody likes the idea of risk, it’s something that must be done if we want to get ahead. 

Applying This Quote

Savings and Investing

There is no question that when it comes to saving and investing, playing it safe feels like the right approach. Your risk tolerance will very much influence your investment strategy and how much you can and will earn. 

However, the reality is that taking a little more risk with your money, even if it’s 5% or 10% more, the return might be well worth stepping outside of your comfort zone. This might mean going 70/30 in stocks, ETFs, and cash instead of 60/40. It could even be 65/45. It really doesn’t matter what the actual breakdown is as long as you are going just a little more into the risk zone. 

Retirement 

As much as we all talk about how great retirement will be, we know that stepping away from work involves a lot of fear and risk. Not only does it mean not having a steady source of income anymore, it also means taking risks with the only money you have. 

Depending on your financial situation, this could involve relocating or purchasing a new home, maybe even a second home. It could also mean moving closer to family and leaving somewhere you are comfortable. 

Just because you are comfortable where you are in life doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t grow equally comfortable elsewhere. An ordinary retirement will bore you, but a retirement full of risk and opportunity will keep your mind and spirit young. 

Career

When it comes to risk and ordinary, your career might be the most notable example. Very few people want to do anything that could risk their career or their current company. Risk is often associated with being let go from work, which is a whole other set of financial and mental problems. 

The challenge is that sometimes you must move away from the ordinary and into risk to start a business. It’s okay to fail, but you never know until you try. Taking this risk might not pay off, and your company may close, or taking a risk by jumping to a new job might turn out to be a bad idea, but you won’t know until you try. 

What separates ordinary from risk in a career is that the people who move forward don’t let fear be a reason to give up, they use it as their driving force to push ahead.