From Risk Junkie to Strategic Operator

In my early days of entrepreneurship, taking wild risks felt like the only way forward.

It worked. And that's the trap.

Back when I left HEC Montréal, most of my peers were sliding into safe, polished careers at big firms.

I chose a different path. 

With two friends, no roadmap, and no funding, we launched a startup in the restaurant space.

The basic idea was to negotiate menu prices with restaurants and make them available for purchase online at special rates.

The restaurants would experience fewer no-shows, and in return, we could earn a small commission on each booking.

We had no money and for two straight months, we hit the pavement, pitching restaurants across Paris.

Day and night, coffees and cold calls—until we’d signed 200 partners.

That first win felt electric.

High risk → high reward → dopamine on tap

This link between risk and reward was hardwired into my thinking, and it kept me from making smarter, lower-risk bets in the years that followed.

• Example 1: We started hiring too soon. Brought in a salesperson without structure, expecting magic.

• Example 2: We launched new initiatives impulsively, thinking: “If we go big with this one, we’ll win big.”

But here’s the thing: that formula worked once, in a very specific context.

It wasn’t a universal truth—and trying to apply it everywhere quickly backfired.

The returns shrank. The chaos grew.

Then I stumbled across a simple personal finance concept:

Something like:

If that’s true for money, why wouldn’t it be true for business?

That quote flipped a switch.

I stopped chasing adrenaline and started doubling down on what already worked. No more huge risks on shiny new products.

Just refining, scaling, and serving the customers we already knew how to help.

Low risk. High leverage.

It was less exciting—but far more effective.

The hard part? Sticking to it.

After your first big win, you feel like Superman. Untouchable. You want to do everything. But that ego, that need for novelty—it kills more businesses than failure ever does.

Long-term success isn’t about playing poker 24/7—it’s more about being a monk, or knowing when to switch between the two. It’s about being disciplined enough to consistently do what works.

So here’s my question for you: What’s the next low-risk, high-leverage (or even low-risk, middle-leverage) move you could make today?

Now compare it to your latest high-risk, ego-driven idea.

Which one is more likely to pay off?

⚡️This Week’s 5 Takeaways:

• Early success often creates a false link between risk and reward.

• Not all big bets are smart ones—many are just undisciplined impulses.

• Hiring or launching without structure leads to unnecessary failures.

• Low-risk, high-leverage plays often outperform “big swings.”

• Long-term growth requires restraint more than reinvention.

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