Profiles of Risk: Portland, Oregon Bears it's Soul

Today, I’m kicking off a new series of video updates that I think will help us all better connect with each other as risk-takers and help us understand the weird thoughts and fears we all face each day. It’s called Profiles of Risk and the purpose is to ask regular people like you and me all over the world two simple questions:

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
What one thing would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail?

As I travel around the world, I’ll be carrying a camcorder and stopping strangers on the street wherever I go, asking them these questions. To start, I went around my hometown of Portland, Oregon and collected answers from men and women of all age, race, and background. Here’s what they had to say:

I didn’t quite know what to expect or if I’d even be able to convince anyone to talk to me, but I was surprised by the results. I did get “no” a lot, but I also got “yes” quite a bit, too.

Some answers were really interesting. Others were fairly dull. Some people were really proud of themselves and others were a little ashamed. From “drinking and driving” to “cliff diving,” and from “running for senate” to “opening an addiction center,” Portland showed a diversity of dreams and experiences that makes me really curious about how different people come to have the hopes and dreams that they do.

I can’t wait to dive deeper into this project as I get around to more and more cities. If you’re at all interested in how every day people like you and me look at risk-taking, I recommend you watch the video and stay tuned for more updates.

Thanks, Portland, for piquing my curiosity.

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Side note: I’m wandering around Austin, Texas today filming more of these for the next installment, so I may be absent from the comments most of the day. Talk amongst yourselves.

If you’re in Austin for SxSw and want to meet up, get a hold of me on Twitter.