The heart of risk

So having a birthday makes you feel like you’re getting older, and getting older makes you think more and more about life and death. So on the weekend I thought I’d browse through the Australian Bureau of Statistics website on the latest morbidity statistics; as we all do for a bit of fun on the weekend.


Did you know over the last 2 years, more people have died from accidental falls than from traffic accidents? Of those who died in accidental falls, more than 80% of those were outside the workplace. To me, this shows that risk measures for driving cars, such as speed limits and seatbelts, have greatly reduced the risk of death. At the workplace, Safety standards and procedures have also reduced the risk of injury and death in the workplace as you are more likely to die from a break and enter assault than falling or slipping at work.

These types of deaths fall under the category of “External Causes”. These external causes however only make up 6.2% of all registered deaths in the last 2 years. The number one killer in Australia over that time period was Heart and Circulatory disease accounting 32.9% of deaths.

See risk is both external and internal, and the corporate body is much like our own. We all come to work as individuals to make one corporate body. We all have our particular functions and by working together with one another the corporate body functions as it were meant to. Like the risks associated with our own death, the corporate body is exposed to both external and internal risks. It is the responsibility of each member of the corporate body to be mindful of those risks and to mitigate where possible against those risks.
With this in mind it brings me to the realisation that risk and quality is at the heart of everything we do.

An incredible Story

From Churchill

"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour."

This quote has me thinking lately about my vision, direction and future. I am grateful for some incredible mentors over the last two years, who have taught me the importance of setting time aside to think. Booking in that time every week to think about my future, be creative in my work, volunteering, how I manage my time, how I love my future wife, and how my behaviour affects situations. By allowing myself the time to think I've realised that I have learnt so much about myself and have changed in every aspect of my life.

If you get that feeling that life seems to just be coming full circle, time and time again, I encourage you, set yourself some time. Even if it is just a half hour, or an hour if you can manage it. Find a place where you can be alone and don't limit yourself. Think, be creative with your life.... you'll be surprised what you will come up with.

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination | Harvard Magazine

This is an incredible speech from J.K. Rowling to the Graduates of Harvard University in 2008.

Inspiring in heart and in delivery.

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination | Harvard Magazine

Impressed Much?

Right now I wish I could try these things, but unfortunately I'm a grown-up and realize my physical limitations, so I'll live vicariously through these three youngsters.

Baffles the mind

Would it really change the way you drive? For me I'd never hop on a bus again.

The threat of being killed in an accident is a powerful incentive to drive carefully. But a driver with a seat belt and a padded dashboard faces less of a threat. Because people respond to incentives, drivers are less careful...... If the seat belts were removed from your car, wouldn’t you be more cautious in driving? Carrying this observation to the extreme, Armen Alchian of the University of California at Los Angeles has suggested a way to bring about a major reduction in the accident rate: Require every car to have a spear mounted on the steering wheel, pointing directly at the driver’s heart. Alchian confidently predicts that we would see a lot less tailgating.

Source: Landsburg, S. (1993) ‘The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life’, The Free Press, New York.

Ultimate in passing the buck

Growing up in a standard family as the middle child always led to those situations where something has been broken and we are all lined up for questioning! In this circumstance, the blame is generally shifted between all three of us, ultimately resulting in us "getting what's coming to us".

In Russia, passing the buck has taken a different twist where a phone company has removed a mobile number from service saying it was "jinxed", stating that the last 3 people to own this number have died. Funnily enough one was a king pin in a mafia circle and another was a high level drug dealer, yet this has not been taken into consideration at all.

I always thought if I dealt drugs or was a top end mafia leader, my life expectancy is reduced more from 'occupational hazards' more so than my phone number.

Just a thought, but for your enjoyment, then rest of the story can be found here.