Order of Man

00:00:00.000 you leave, if you just quit today, you just march and storm into your boss's office and say, I quit

00:00:04.580 and you burn all the bridges on the way out. That's a huge unnecessary risk. And again, I'm not telling

00:00:10.300 you not to pursue the new venture, but what you could do, and this is what I did when I started

00:00:14.800 Order of Man, I was still doing financial planning while I was doing Order of Man. So I was doing

00:00:20.640 both and I had to bust my tail every single morning and every single evening so that I could

00:00:25.960 make sure I got the hours in needed to grow this movement, to grow this business. I talk with so

00:00:32.160 many men who have big goals and big dreams and desires and wishes for their life, whether it's

00:00:37.620 building a relationship with a woman and a family, to starting a business, to getting in shape, to

00:00:43.820 exploring the world and having adventures. Every man I've ever talked with has some sort of vision

00:00:49.920 for what his future holds to varying degrees. But that said, most of the men that I talk with

00:00:59.060 are not willing to take the risks necessary to achieve their goals, dreams, and desires. So

00:01:04.920 today I want to share with you some tools that you can use, some mindsets, and some insight that I've

00:01:10.760 personally used in my own life to build a family, to starting multiple businesses, and really building

00:01:16.500 the type of life that I desire. And ultimately, gentlemen, that's what I want for you. I want

00:01:21.200 you to have the kind of life and purpose and meaning and fulfillment so that you can serve

00:01:28.260 people, you can create memories, and you can have the experience out of this thing we call

00:01:33.780 life for yourself. So let's talk about taking risks. Now, I think it's well known at this point

00:01:39.340 and well documented that men have a greater propensity for taking risks. And it should be that

00:01:44.840 way. We are the leaders. We are the ones who are casting vision. We are the ones who are putting

00:01:50.920 ourselves forward. We are the ones taking on the responsibility of leading and protecting and

00:01:56.920 providing for ourselves and for loved ones. And when things go wrong, people look to us and they want

00:02:03.740 us to build. Our spouses want us to create a good life. And our children look to us for leadership.

00:02:10.060 And part of that is our requirement to take not unnecessary risks, but calculated ones. So the

00:02:17.240 first step that you need to really consider when it comes to taking risk in your life, especially if

00:02:22.180 you're somebody who has a hard time doing it, is really get clear on the what you want out of life

00:02:27.320 and why you want it. Because I'm telling you, whatever you go after, if it's in business, if it's in

00:02:32.940 your, uh, in, in finances and money, if it's in relationships, if it's in experiences, it's going

00:02:39.060 to be difficult. It's going to get hard. People aren't going to like you. You're going to put

00:02:43.540 yourself out there. They're going to say things about you. You're going to face lawsuits and you're

00:02:47.380 going to run up against hurdles and obstacles. If you're growing a business and there's going to be

00:02:51.780 interpersonal conflict with other people as you're building relationships and it will get hard.

00:02:56.580 So you, you can implement everything that I'm going to tell you today and it will help, but it's still

00:03:02.620 going to get difficult. And in those moments of difficulty where most men will buckle and they'll

00:03:08.680 cower and they'll slink away into obscurity, I don't want that for you. And so you're going to have to

00:03:13.960 rely on something pretty powerful in order to propel you forward. Because why take a risk if there's

00:03:20.420 nothing on the other side of that risk or the potential for something great is not there. So what is

00:03:26.300 your why? And I recommend a great book by Simon Sinek. It's called Start With Why.

00:03:30.920 And it will really help you to articulate why you're doing the things that you're doing,

00:03:34.740 why you want to take the risk that you want to take, why you want to pursue the ventures that are

00:03:38.760 important and significant and meaningful to you. Because when push comes to shove and life gets hard

00:03:44.420 and you're not making the kind of money that you want to make in that new business, or the thing isn't

00:03:48.860 going well with the relationship with the woman that you, you love, you're going to have to find a way

00:03:54.340 to buckle down, remember why you started doing this in the first place, remember why it was important

00:04:00.180 to you, and then get on with whatever needs to be done in order to achieve your objectives.

00:04:06.160 Now again, I'm not telling you to take unnecessary risks. I'm not telling you to put yourself in harm's

00:04:11.940 way or to potentially create unnecessary weaknesses and chinks in your armor for your family. That's not

00:04:19.900 what I'm saying. I'm saying take risks so that you can propel yourself and move forward, but you have

00:04:24.620 to know why you're doing it. And by the way, I would also suggest that you share that with the

00:04:28.640 people who are vested in the process. You don't need to share your why with everybody. The world

00:04:34.040 doesn't need to be privy to the why you're doing the things that you're doing, and most people just

00:04:39.460 aren't going to understand anyways. But if you want to share it with your wife or your kids or the people

00:04:44.320 who will be impacted by the decisions that you're making, then absolutely. The best way to create

00:04:49.420 your why is to start thinking about the things that you enjoy. What would you do if money were

00:04:54.740 not an option? What are you doing when time moves the fastest? What are people coming to you for advice

00:05:02.700 on? And you're going to start answering these questions and notice some common themes between

00:05:06.640 the answers, and that's going to really help you uncover some things that maybe you have a propensity

00:05:13.240 towards addressing. Another great why type exercise is to really consider what injustices you've

00:05:21.120 experienced in life or that really resonate and speak with you. You know, I grew up as a young man

00:05:26.620 without a permanent father figure in my life, and I think that was a great injustice. It's not fair,

00:05:32.500 and we all know life is not fair, so I'm not here to complain about that, but I believe that every man

00:05:37.580 or boy, I should say young man, ought to have an engaged and present father in his life.

00:05:43.060 So much so, because I went through what that's like, that it's now become my life's work. So what

00:05:48.600 is my why? To serve men so they can serve their sons and daughters and create a better opportunity

00:05:55.280 for them than they may have had for themselves. Now, I'm uniquely qualified, not exclusively qualified,

00:06:01.260 but uniquely qualified to have those conversations because it speaks to my heart. It speaks to my soul.

00:06:06.760 I have firsthand experience with it, and because I have that firsthand experience, I'm willing to

00:06:11.980 double down. I'm willing to invest. I'm willing to pour in where other people might falter and fall

00:06:17.280 behind. What is your why? Why are you doing the things that you're doing? Why is that important

00:06:22.280 to you? And the more emotionally charged it can be, where you get that little shimmer in your eye or

00:06:27.640 shed a tear of excitement or whatever it might be over that opportunity or that new venture you're

00:06:32.460 going to take, the better it's going to be. Make sure you're using emotion to your advantage.

00:06:37.640 All right. Number two is you need to measure the risk versus reward. And I've talked with a lot of

00:06:43.260 guys who will take a lot of unnecessary risk without any anticipation of anything in return.

00:06:49.840 Obviously, at least I hope it's obvious that you're not going to do that, that you're not going to just

00:06:54.740 wing it, that you're not going to fly by the seat of your pants, that you're not just going to do big

00:06:58.140 things because somebody once told you that's what you ought to be doing. But it doesn't align with

00:07:01.940 your vision. It doesn't align with your why. And there's no potential gain on the other side of

00:07:05.580 it. But what I would also say is measure the amount of work that you do. And we're going to talk a

00:07:12.000 little bit more about some of these things. Measure the amount of work you do based on the potential

00:07:16.620 reward. So if I'm going to invest a thousand dollars and I might make ten dollars in exchange for

00:07:24.360 that thousand or a rate of return of ten dollars, so less than one percent, then I'm not going to

00:07:33.320 invest a lot of time in that. I'm not going to spend a lot of time thinking about whether I should

00:07:37.860 or should not do this or spending my nights thinking about it and not being able to sleep.

00:07:42.580 But I see people do that. They just pour over all of this unnecessarily. You should match your

00:07:49.140 investment of time and energy to the potential return. If it's minimal, just do it. There's

00:07:55.940 nothing to think about. Just do it if it seems like it's something that is in alignment with what

00:07:59.940 you want. If it's something a little bit more potentially dangerous or puts you at a greater

00:08:06.640 risk for loss, then you want to match your energy proportionate to the risk that you're going to be

00:08:12.080 taking. So measure what I could potentially gain out of this versus what I might potentially lose

00:08:18.840 and ask yourself, am I willing to lose in exchange for the potential return? And this leads us into,

00:08:26.440 and I think this might be the most important thing here, is that you have to hedge your bets.

00:08:31.540 And I'm not saying that you hedge by not going all in on the thing that you're excited about. That is

00:08:38.140 not what I'm saying. I'm talking about shoring up other areas of your life so that the risks that

00:08:46.960 you take aren't as risky as they might be to somebody else. So let me give you a prime example.

00:08:53.640 Let's say you've been working for a consulting firm for the past 20 years, and the work is decent.

00:08:59.760 The people you work with are fine, but you feel something calling to you, and you want to start a

00:09:05.720 business. Maybe you want to start your own consulting company, or maybe you want to consult

00:09:09.200 on something different, or maybe you want to pick up some new work in the tech field, or name it.

00:09:18.340 It doesn't matter, but you want to start this other business. The way that you hedge your bets against

00:09:23.580 things like that, because if you leave, if you just quit today, you just march and storm into your

00:09:27.460 boss's office and say, I quit, and you burn all the bridges on the way out, that's a huge unnecessary

00:09:33.120 risk. And again, I'm not telling you not to pursue the new venture, but what you could do,

00:09:38.260 and this is what I did when I started Order of Man, I was still doing financial planning while I was

00:09:43.220 doing Order of Man. So I was doing both, and I had to bust my tail every single morning and every

00:09:49.140 single evening so that I could make sure I got the hours in needed to grow this movement, to grow this

00:09:54.040 business. But I was doing both. When I started my own registered investment advisory firm

00:10:01.720 in, gosh, this would have been 2011-ish, somewhere in there, I knew that I was going to be leaving

00:10:10.600 another, a previous employer. And so I continued to work with that employer, and I served that

00:10:17.180 employer. I fulfilled and met my obligations and responsibilities. But I was also doing the

00:10:22.100 back-end work and research behind what does it take to start a registered investment advisory firm?

00:10:26.600 Um, what skills do I need that I don't currently have? Taxes, for example, and bookkeeping, accounting,

00:10:32.440 et cetera. And I would learn about those things while I was working over here, and that's how I

00:10:38.440 hedged that time so that when I left, it wasn't that great of a risk. Another thing to consider is,

00:10:45.600 are your, is your financial house in order? If you're up to your eyeballs in debt, and you don't know how to

00:10:51.940 budget, and you don't know what your cash flow is on a monthly basis, you're not in the position to

00:10:57.440 take that risk. You can't take advantage of an opportunity that's there because you're not in the

00:11:02.400 position to do it. So for, another thing I've seen is, employers might come to you and ask you to do

00:11:08.260 something that goes against your, your morals, and your principles, and your why, and your purpose,

00:11:13.560 like we talked about earlier. Well, if you're strapped for cash, and up to your eyeballs in debt,

00:11:18.020 and you're living paycheck to paycheck, yet the likelihood that you will do something that goes

00:11:23.140 against what you believe is significantly greater than if you had $20,000, $50,000, $100,000 in the

00:11:30.900 bank. I've heard people call it an FU fund or a walkaway fund. If you've got that kind of money,

00:11:38.780 then you're not going to need to jeopardize your morals and principles to the degree that another

00:11:43.120 man might need to in order to put food on his table and a roof over his kids' heads. So guys,

00:11:48.500 get all of your things in order right now. As the proverb goes, the best time to plant a tree is

00:11:55.940 before you need the shade. But what most men do is when they are presented with an opportunity,

00:12:02.020 then they start fixing themselves, right? So a guy who's going through a divorce will not take care

00:12:08.720 of himself all throughout the marriage. But then when he's going through a divorce, now it's like,

00:12:12.960 oh, okay, now I'll get in shape and be strong and try to make myself more attractive. Or the guy who

00:12:18.640 wants to start a business, instead of learning about how to grow a business, how to start a

00:12:23.380 business, all the ins and outs of business, while he's not in that position, he waits until some

00:12:29.260 friend of his comes and says, hey, I'd like to do a business together. And he's not ready for it.

00:12:33.360 So you've got to put in the work now, get your mind right, get your finances right, get your physical

00:12:41.620 fitness right. And not only is it going to help when you're ready to make these decisions in your

00:12:45.620 life, but it's also going to help you live a more fulfilled life now where you currently are. So there's

00:12:50.540 no downside to improving yourself. There's only upside down the road when opportunities inevitably

00:12:57.680 present themselves, whether it's asking that attractive woman on a date, starting that business,

00:13:03.360 going on that adventure, or whatever else it might be. Now, the next thing, guys, and this is point

00:13:08.420 number four, is when we look at these risks that we're going to take, we're going to look at what's

00:13:13.900 called a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis. It's an acronym. It's spelled S-W-O-T. So you're going to look

00:13:20.760 at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and targets. These are the things that might end up hurting you.

00:13:31.180 These are the things that might end up helping you. These are the, oh, I'm excuse me. I said targets,

00:13:35.480 threats is what I meant. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So when you go through

00:13:40.700 this SWOT analysis, you're going to ask yourself, well, what are my strengths? If I'm going to go out

00:13:45.920 and start this business, but I'm extremely, extremely disciplined, I've got the time and energy to put into

00:13:51.580 it. I'm driven by my why. Great. Those are my strengths. We're going to lean on those strengths.

00:13:56.640 My weaknesses, however, might be that I am not very organized or that maybe I have a lack of

00:14:08.920 knowledge in that arena that needs to be shored up. Well, okay. Recognize what your weaknesses are

00:14:15.420 because you can either shore them up now or you can bring people in to help you address those

00:14:20.480 weaknesses. Opportunities are, again, to go back to what we're saying earlier, the risk versus reward.

00:14:26.240 So opportunity is the potential reward. And the more specific you can get, the better.

00:14:31.760 So if you're going to start a business, don't just say, oh, this is a growing space and I could make

00:14:36.180 a lot of money, although it might be. Why specifically is it in this space? What about this space? What

00:14:42.440 about you creates these opportunities and makes it a worthwhile investment for you? Because you might

00:14:48.200 find out, and I've done this with a couple of businesses, ideas anyways, just recently where it just

00:14:52.880 doesn't make sense. I'm all hopped up and excited about it. And I started doing the research and it's

00:14:57.900 like, it's not a good time to do what I would want to do all because I did this SWOT analysis, which

00:15:04.180 leads to the next point of SWOT, the threats. All right. If, if, if you're trying to get into a space

00:15:12.620 that is heavily automated, that AI is currently replacing by the second, then maybe that's a threat you

00:15:19.500 ought to be aware of and consider that it's not the best time to take that, that risk. Um, if you're

00:15:25.780 doing something wild, like, uh, going, you know, skydiving, the threats are the, the parachute

00:15:33.080 doesn't open up or the, the parachute malfunctions or your instructor teaches you something wrong,

00:15:40.460 or you get scared in the moment and do something wrong. And so anticipate those things. Here's what

00:15:46.580 could go wrong. That's why you always have a backup parachute just in case the first one

00:15:50.360 malfunctions or doesn't deploy. You have the backup. And that's why it's important to know

00:15:54.640 what those threats are because you're hedging to go back to point number three, you're hedging your 0.98

00:15:59.420 bets against the loss you could inevitably face if you went into it ignorant and blind. So use that 0.98

00:16:05.260 SWOT analysis. Now, if it comes to taking a risk by asking a woman on a date, again, to go back to

00:16:12.500 what I said earlier, you don't need to spend a lot of time thinking about the SWOT analysis, whether

00:16:17.700 or not, um, she's going to reject you or, or be open to your solicitation. Like it's just not

00:16:24.920 something you should do, but if it's something bigger and greater and grander with a potential

00:16:29.300 of risk and loss, then the SWOT analysis is, is crucial. And then the last thing here, guys,

00:16:34.820 that I want to share with you is getting coaching. All right. I, I cannot tell you how many men

00:16:39.540 that I've talked with and told them to coat, to get coaching, to get advice, to get insight,

00:16:44.420 to listen to podcasts, to, um, sign up for email newsletters, to go to events that these

00:16:50.820 individuals put on, to invest in books and courses and programs and events that are available.

00:16:57.280 And then ultimately hire for group coaching or individual coaching. If you're in that position,

00:17:02.320 because those individuals have already done what you're going to do, which means they've already

00:17:08.840 stepped in all the cracks along the road. They know where it's dangerous. They know what happens

00:17:15.140 when you mess up. They know where the threats are that you can't even possibly acknowledge right

00:17:20.300 now. So get yourself a coach, hire a mentor, hire a coach, go to courses, go to events, get programs,

00:17:28.000 listen to, um, podcasts, read their emails and their books and everything else, because they're

00:17:33.000 going to help you understand what you're actually signing up for, because you don't know right now.

00:17:37.940 You have an idea. You've done some research as we talked about, you're hedging your bets like we

00:17:42.860 talked about, but ultimately you're still going into it somewhat blind and you don't need it.

00:17:48.300 You don't need to reinvent the wheel. I get it. It's sexy. It feels like you're actually doing

00:17:53.440 something good. But if somebody has already invented the wheel, just take the wheel and then focus on a

00:17:58.500 different problem because that one's already solved. And that's the power of coaching guys. I really

00:18:03.880 want you to take more calculated risks. And I should say righteous risk. I hope that, I hope

00:18:10.100 that's inherent in what I'm saying, that we have a righteous mandate to protect, provide, and preside

00:18:19.020 for ourselves, for our loved ones, and also for people who can't do it for themselves. That's our

00:18:24.180 job. That's our responsibility and duty. And it's going to require that we're bold and courageous and

00:18:29.440 that we take risk and that we put ourselves out there and we potentially expose ourselves to

00:18:34.580 financial hardship, to emotional frustration, to maybe even cultural pushback. It's part of the

00:18:47.520 deal, but we have to take the risk to do something big in our lives. And every single one of you,

00:18:52.340 I know because you're listening to this podcast, have a goal for what your future holds. It's going to

00:18:57.020 require you doing the work. And I hope that these steps help. Again, know what you want and why.

00:19:01.760 Start with why by Simon Sinek. Measure the risk versus reward and then act accordingly. Invest your

00:19:07.260 time and energy and resources accordingly. Number three, hedge your bets, not by not going all in,

00:19:13.120 but by shoring up every aspect of your life right now. So you lessen the risk that you're going to

00:19:18.820 expose yourself to. Number four, the SWOT analysis. And then number five, get yourself some coaching.

00:19:23.960 And on that note, if you are interested in whether it's coaching, one-to-one coaching with me,

00:19:30.480 I am going to be taking on a few, a handful of men that I'm going to work directly with

00:19:36.620 in Q4, rolling into Q1. If you want to, and I've never done this before, this is brand new.

00:19:42.820 So if you want to improve your finances, you want to start a business, you want to figure out how better

00:19:48.000 to connect with important people in your life, you want to get fit and strong. Again, I'm going

00:19:55.240 to be doing individual coaching for a handful of men throughout the rest of the year. And as we go

00:20:00.220 into 2026. So if you're interested in that, you can email me, Ryan at order of man type in coaching,

00:20:06.720 and I'll talk with you about what that would entail and what that looks like. And outside of that,

00:20:12.060 make sure you check out our group. It's called the iron council. We've been going for 10 years now.

00:20:17.400 It's open. I think as of yesterday, we had 59, I think 59 new members. These are all men who are

00:20:25.860 motivated, ambitious, driven, and they're working with a one-to-one coach for 30 days to get them

00:20:30.380 up to speed so they can start implementing the systems that we have in place. A couple of resources

00:20:35.700 for you. Guys, it's important that we as men take those risks and we do what needs to be done in order

00:20:40.500 to serve ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world. I hope that helps. We will be back next

00:20:46.040 week. Until then, go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.

00:20:54.500 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your

00:20:58.720 life and be more of the man you were meant to be, we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

00:21:04.580 Thank you.

A Man's Guide to Taking Risk ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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