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What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?
- Thread starter Brian Fantana
- Start date
Your mum
Sent from your mum using Tapatalk
Sent from your mum using Tapatalk
Wrong-Direction
Well-known member
- Mar 10, 2013
- 13,429
Miximate
Well-known member
Well, there was this one sheep........
The Maharajah of Sydney
Well-known member
Took a 1,000 lot position in 90-Day Bank Bill Futures (Short Term Interest Rate Contracts) back in the early nineties.
The leverage gave me a ½ Billion Dollar exposure - fortunately I got the market right.
The leverage gave me a ½ Billion Dollar exposure - fortunately I got the market right.
Had a job in London which was high flying but physically killing me. I got a mortgage on a house in Brighton and quit my job the next day.
Moved down with a quarter of a million pound debt and no way to service it. Huge risk but I had faith I'd find the right job, which thankfully I did.
Both personally and professionally it was the biggest gamble I've ever taken - but it paid dividends. I genuinely love my job, home and living in the best city in the UK.
I was very lucky to land a good job down here, and not miss a mortgage payment. So I came out of it smelling of roses but it was a massive risk.
Moved down with a quarter of a million pound debt and no way to service it. Huge risk but I had faith I'd find the right job, which thankfully I did.
Both personally and professionally it was the biggest gamble I've ever taken - but it paid dividends. I genuinely love my job, home and living in the best city in the UK.
I was very lucky to land a good job down here, and not miss a mortgage payment. So I came out of it smelling of roses but it was a massive risk.
The Fifth Column
Retired ex-cop
Back in the 90's I drunkenly hooked up with a prostitute in Mombasa! (85% of them were HIV positive), got into her brother's battered old Peugeot 504 with an old sofa as a rear seat, no floor pan or windscreen wipers and it was chucking it down like a monsoon. Somehow made it back to the brothel which was a desolate concrete block of flats in the centre of Mombasa resembling an East German prison, Once into her room it was minging with a flea bitten mattress and the sounds of the 3rd world all around, then all the electrics and lights cut out, the door burst open and I thought I was going to be robbed and murdered! It was the madam of the brothel, she dragged me out of the room stark bollock naked and insisted I fix the main electric fuse board, luckily as a Royal Navy technician I had a reasonable grasp of what I was doing and managed to restore the electrics. By this time I had sobered up quite significantly and the peril of my situation had become all too apparent. Then a shipmate walked into the brothel in the state I had been earlier, I scooped him up, paid the prostitute about 10 times what she had asked for which was still a pitiful amount and did the same with her brother who was dutifully waiting outside with the knackered Peugeot. I told him I'd pay a handsome bonus if he ensured we got back to the Ship alive and he delivered us in one piece. I've never been more relieved to see one of Her Majesties warships than I was when we got out of that taxi.
Not my finest moment but one I chuckle about now.
Not my finest moment but one I chuckle about now.
- Apr 5, 2014
- 23,626
In 2002 my company split into two. I held a managerial position and would retain that in the newly formed company. I had grave doubts about its viability and grossly disliked the ethics of its CEO.
I had only been in that particular job in the overall organisation for three months and had insisted that a clause was placed in my contract that allowed me to return to my previous post (which in this case would be in the old company) if I didn't wish to stay. The working day before the split became official I went to see the most senior manager and invoked the clause (which only had three days left on it) and demanded to return to my old job- despite the pay rate being lower. Despite attempts to persuade me my wishes were met (the manager concerned being privately pleased about it).
Six months later the new company went under with lots of staff and charitable groups owed money. The old company that I remained in continued to flourish and eventually went under- 14 years later. I worked for them all that time and have never looked back with any regret.
The decision shaped my future and, for once, it was totally correct and perfectly timed.
I had only been in that particular job in the overall organisation for three months and had insisted that a clause was placed in my contract that allowed me to return to my previous post (which in this case would be in the old company) if I didn't wish to stay. The working day before the split became official I went to see the most senior manager and invoked the clause (which only had three days left on it) and demanded to return to my old job- despite the pay rate being lower. Despite attempts to persuade me my wishes were met (the manager concerned being privately pleased about it).
Six months later the new company went under with lots of staff and charitable groups owed money. The old company that I remained in continued to flourish and eventually went under- 14 years later. I worked for them all that time and have never looked back with any regret.
The decision shaped my future and, for once, it was totally correct and perfectly timed.
jakarta
Well-known member
1991 - upped sticks from the shithole I lived in (Northwich) and moved to Aberdeen to be a North Sea Tiger, sold up absolutely everything to move on a career and a life that had stalled for the past 5 or so years.
While Aberdeen and Offshore were both a shock it kick started both working life (starting accumulating technical/professional qualifications which lasted for next 3 years until I got to minimum for a proper career in what I do) and personal life (met Mrs J within 18 months of moving up there, a long story why it was in Portslade, all to do with oil price and the fact I was happy to move back to England 'temporarily').
Still keep in touch with a few people in Northwich and 25 years later it is still the biggest shithole imaginable. Certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the life I have had in the past 20 years or so (that is living in Sussex in case you hadn't guessed) if I hadn't taken the gamble to move away.
While Aberdeen and Offshore were both a shock it kick started both working life (starting accumulating technical/professional qualifications which lasted for next 3 years until I got to minimum for a proper career in what I do) and personal life (met Mrs J within 18 months of moving up there, a long story why it was in Portslade, all to do with oil price and the fact I was happy to move back to England 'temporarily').
Still keep in touch with a few people in Northwich and 25 years later it is still the biggest shithole imaginable. Certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the life I have had in the past 20 years or so (that is living in Sussex in case you hadn't guessed) if I hadn't taken the gamble to move away.
dannyboy
tfso!
done the usual dangerous driving , drug taking stupid risks . one particularly stupid risk I took was on a cross channel ferry . was out on deck , hopped over the barrier so I had the sea below me and then lent back and held on with one hand . then I did the thing where you swap hands so for a split second I wasn't holding on ! no idea why I did that .
now I'm 46 and a bit more grown up I suppose my biggest risk starts next Thursday . will be leaving family friends and the albion behind and emigrate to new Zealand with my wife and daughter . Tuesday night was my last game !
now I'm 46 and a bit more grown up I suppose my biggest risk starts next Thursday . will be leaving family friends and the albion behind and emigrate to new Zealand with my wife and daughter . Tuesday night was my last game !
pastafarian
Well-known member
mates dodgy old parachute, long length of rope and a land rover.
me agreeing to be guinea pig to find out if they combined.
They dont,....our drunk version of parasailing was an initial success on take off that had serious flaws
me agreeing to be guinea pig to find out if they combined.
They dont,....our drunk version of parasailing was an initial success on take off that had serious flaws
CAPTAIN GREALISH
Well-known member
- Jan 6, 2010
- 2,601
leaving home 6 am before parents got up to thumb a lift up to Coventry at the age of 15 to watch the albion, and getting picked up on the motorway from a mini-bus packed with Coventry fans
Psychobilly freakout
HellBilly
1: I walked back in past the bouncer lying on the floor with his ear bitten off upstairs I found them at the bar laughing and drinking one of them lunged at me with a bottle and the rest piled in for a while, then the leader shouted at them to stop. He pulled me up to my feet and asked "why did you come back in " my reply was "I knew you would get me at a rally or another club, so thought lets get this over with" - They all laughed and walked off as Nazi scum do leaving me with in the end stitches to my forehead from a headbutt, and in my elbow from the glass a black eye and various big black/purple bruises....
(actually being a psychobilly and going wreckin prepares you for a sustained beating in a way)
2: I was fairly fit back then being a floorlayer in my prime.
ManOfSussex
We wunt be druv
After getting married, deciding to quit my quite well paid job and move with my wife to Africa who had work down there, when I didn't. I gave up a lot, ultimately it didn't work out but I wouldn't change a thing.
DarrenFreemansPerm
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Possibly not the biggest risk, but one of the most stupid things I've done was at party in Deux Alpes, just for the giggles I dropped my trousers and spread my ball sack, like a batwing, across a mates leg, I then had somebody punch a stapler through my sack thus attaching me to my friends leg. It was quite messy.
mikeyjh
Well-known member
Ditto! Not a nice experience is it... Possible surpassed by getting in an CNG auto in rush hour....
Jack Straw
I look nothing like him!
Early '70s and I had the monster of all motorbikes, a Honda 50 - the one with the white plastic leg shields. My best mate had a Suzuki 250. We would race everywhere, and I made up for my lack of cc's by driving like a complete nutter. A bit like current day Deliveroo bikers, but much, much worse.
One night after several pints in the Pickwick in East Street, we raced back to Woodingdean where we both lived. My mate was ahead of me for obvious reasons, but I saw him in my sights at the Downs Hotel crossroads where he had stopped at the give way marks. There were no traffic lights there in those days. This is my chance I thought. Full throttle, and without stopping, went flying past him without looking, straight across the crossroads. A car coming down Falmer Road missed me by an inch. I was so, so lucky.
One night after several pints in the Pickwick in East Street, we raced back to Woodingdean where we both lived. My mate was ahead of me for obvious reasons, but I saw him in my sights at the Downs Hotel crossroads where he had stopped at the give way marks. There were no traffic lights there in those days. This is my chance I thought. Full throttle, and without stopping, went flying past him without looking, straight across the crossroads. A car coming down Falmer Road missed me by an inch. I was so, so lucky.
Chief Wiggum
New member
- Apr 30, 2009
- 518
"Early '70s and I had the monster of all motorbikes, a Honda 50"
Ha ha - mine was a purple Yamaha FS1e. Back in the day (1978) one of our weekend haunts was the disco that was held at the pub on Devils Dyke. I am ashamed to say we would regularly leave pissed and race each other back down the hill. No idea how I survived.
In the mid 80's I was traveling in Southern China and for reasons unknown to me now took on a dare to swim the very wide and busy river at Nanning. I nearly got run down by a large industrial sized barge which was a terrifying experience.
As young men, why do we do such stupid things? I have three boys who have all, at various times, pulled the most ridiculous stunts (the ones I know about!). They get a right rollicking, but I have to remember what a **** in my youth I sometimes was too.
Ha ha - mine was a purple Yamaha FS1e. Back in the day (1978) one of our weekend haunts was the disco that was held at the pub on Devils Dyke. I am ashamed to say we would regularly leave pissed and race each other back down the hill. No idea how I survived.
In the mid 80's I was traveling in Southern China and for reasons unknown to me now took on a dare to swim the very wide and busy river at Nanning. I nearly got run down by a large industrial sized barge which was a terrifying experience.
As young men, why do we do such stupid things? I have three boys who have all, at various times, pulled the most ridiculous stunts (the ones I know about!). They get a right rollicking, but I have to remember what a **** in my youth I sometimes was too.