Risk&Reward

One of my sons-in-law has a deer feeder set up near a game camera on his ranch.  The picture he captured below in pre-dawn Christmas morning 2014 reminded me of two of the types of people we often encounter in life.

As you can see one of the raccoons has climbed up the tree, is hanging upside down by hind legs only, and is shaking corn out of the deer feeder.  The other raccoon is on the ground enjoying the fruits of the other's work.  Via the time-lapse component on the field camera, this same scenario played out multiple times, with each raccoon playing the same roles.

One was the risk taker, the other the reward seeker.

We see the same types of roles played out in humans.  Certain folks seem to revel in the joy of taking the risk, climbing the tree, challenging some unknown device/problem/dilemma.  Other folks see the opportunities for such adventures but assign themselves to the sidelines, waiting patiently to see if the risk-takers manage to "shake something loose."  If so, then the reward seekers happily partake in the benefits of such risk-taking (without having taken the risks themselves).  They don't have to climb the tree, they don't have to hang upside down, they don't have to reach out and engage some unknown and potentially dangerous creature/challenge.  They simply wait for the rewards to rain down.

We get to choose whether we want to be the adventuresome risk taker, or the play-it-safe reward seeker.

I'll take the former for my role.  Risk be damned!