You can easily identify a real risk manager. She is cheerful and usually advises more risk. She looks for the danger in every success, and makes sure to mine the silver lining of every failure. She thinks people who predict are her enemies, they’re the ones who say, ‘Build the wall on the north side of town, that’s where we expect the attack.’ She says instead, ‘I don’t care what you expect, if you leave any gap in the walls, that’s where they’ll come. Risk management is about preparing for anything that might happen, not guessing what will happen.’ And she has no interest in preventing failure, which can only be done by eliminating risk. She is happiest when people fail fast, and when the organization is robust enough to survive many failures. These are the conditions that encourage the creativity and innovation required for evolutionary success, not just surviving each day.
Risk versus Portfolio Management by Aaron Brown