cover image The Greatest Risk of All: Why Successful People Take Chances and Why You Should

The Greatest Risk of All: Why Successful People Take Chances and Why You Should

Walter Anderson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $17.95 (242pp) ISBN 978-0-395-46516-5

The greatest risk of all, according to Anderson, the editor of Parade magazine, in his readable and inspirational volume, is never to take any risks. To succeed, he says, we must take intelligent chances. Bolstered by interviews with people who have been successful in their lives, he proposes some guidelines. First, we must define our goal clearly, and then consider potential lossesloss of comfort, the sacrifices required to move ahead and what will be lost if the risk does not work out. Next we must identify who we ourselves are and the purpose of the risk (for example, if the motive is anger or jealousy, it's a bad move). We must consider timing and then act. Among the celebrities who tell of risks they have taken are Carol Burnett, Gloria Steinem, Norman Vincent Peale, Elie Weisel and Joyce Brothers. This should prove a popular self-help book. First serial to Good Housekeeping; author tour. (September)