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Risky is the New Safe: The Rules Have Changed . . .

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and #1 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

Risky Is the New Safe is a different kind of book for a different kind of thinking--a thought-provoking manifesto for risk takers. It will challenge you to think laterally, question premises, and be a contrarian.

Disruptive technology, accelerating speed of change and economic upheaval are changing the game. The same tired, old conventional thinking won't get you to success today. Risky Is the New Safe will change the way you look at everything! You'll view challenges--and the corresponding opportunities they provide--in entirely new and exciting ways. You'll recognize powerful new gateways to creating wealth.

In this mind-bending book you'll discover:

How mavericks like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Mark Cuban think differently--and what you can learn from them; The six-month online course that could allow you to earn more than a Ph.D.; How social media changes branding and marketing forever, and what that means for you; What happens when holo-suites and virtual-reality sex come about, and how you need to prepare; The new religion of ideas: How to become an "idea generator" and declare as a free agent; and, What will cause the Euro, precious metals, and oceanfront real estate to collapse--and how that can make you rich!

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

45 people are currently reading
677 people want to read

About the author

Randy Gage

100 books141 followers
Randy Gage has been called “the Millionaire Messiah” because he believes that you are meant to be rich, and it is a sin to be poor! Through his prosperity workshops, books and CDs, he travels the world teaching that health, happiness, and wealth are possible for all who desire it. Randy reveals how to harness the power of thought and intention to manifest success in all areas of your life.

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5 stars
120 (34%)
4 stars
111 (32%)
3 stars
66 (19%)
2 stars
36 (10%)
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11 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
Profile Image for Ross Decker.
1 review
September 20, 2012
The economy is broken.
The educational system from top to bottom is broken.
Traditional business models are broken.
And that's the good news.

In his new book, Risky Is The New Safe, Randy Gage makes a clear and compelling case that in this time of world turmoil, now is the time to zig while all others zag. The book reads like a a road map from where we are today to where we are heading in the next 10, 20, 50 years.

New morality, disruptive technology, class warfare, social media. It's all here laid definitively in Randy's take no prisoners style. It's an in your face missive that challenges your preconceived ideas.

This is a book for thinkers.
Profile Image for Lucy Chronicles.
23 reviews6 followers
December 19, 2012
It took a little over an hour at B&N to read this book. It was worth a speed-read scan. I copied down a few parts to digest. The Author is a contrarian and absolutely right-on with most of his views/predictions; the world has changed, will continue to change and traditional schooling to old-line jobs are dying/dead. Prepare yourself. Do something, think differently and most importantly, be responsible for yourself, have a higher purpose. The social media section and advice for entrepreneurs such as myself was the most useful. However, it probably can be found on the author's blog and warrants a separate book unto itself.

Buy it as an E-book and blow through it, take time to digest and do more than keep your eyes open.
Profile Image for Cynthia Makris.
1 review
September 18, 2012
This is a book which you can't put down because the author just keeps propelling you forward with new scenarios of what life could be and what it will not be anymore. I needed to know everything he had to say just to find ground under my feet again. And that is just the message: the ground we thought was safe is not so permanent anymore. Let Randy show you how you need to approach the upcoming changes and how to love living in a fluctuating world. It actually can be fun, but it is at least necessary.
Profile Image for Ty Peña.
2 reviews1 follower
June 26, 2023
This is the worst book I’ve ever read. I felt like I was reading a long tweet. While I understand where he is coming from and I agree with some of it, the book was all over the place, and he had some terrible one-liners like the one below:
“Your highest moral purpose must be your own success and happiness.” - Randy Gage.
Profile Image for Mason Mohkami.
17 reviews
August 9, 2020
I liked the first chapter, and I thought I would really like the book, but after that it went all over the place, and was really disorganized and in some cases irrelevant to the title.
Also, it's not risky if suggested that one should keep 50% of his/her asset in little to no risk investment.
Profile Image for Ton.
17 reviews
January 11, 2013
I like the 'zagging when everyone else is zigging' bit. I also like his view on the current economic situation at large. But is it a wealth discovering experience? No. Gage just describes good entrepreneurship and that hasn't changed. To become successful you need a vision, passion, focus, stamina etc. etc. we already know that, don't we? It's a nice, easy and quick to read book but doesn't live up to its promise and I don't think it has any value.

The praise he's got from his friends T. Harv Eker (mind blowing), Larry Winget (Holy crap, I love this book) and Alan Weiss (a great freaking book) also makes me feel betrayed by them.

Maybe I'm just fed up with the typical American 'rags to riches' stories (I dropped out of school, I was so poor, I went to jail, I didn't have any education and WOW look at me now: I'm a freaking millionaire).

The entire book, the praise from his friends and all the marketing efforts that was put into the launch makes me believe this is a just another 'get rich quick scheme' that only makes one man rich: Gage.
Profile Image for Loreen.
1 review
December 11, 2012
Very quick read - absolutely worth going through in one sitting. At times I found myself nodding my head furiously and agreeing thinking to myself - Ya Why don't "they" get that?

Of particular poignancy to me was the part about the trend toward vilifying the wealthy. I see it happening and it's both frightening and sad to me. I for one am all for abundance for all of us.

Now, more than ever, as made clear in this little gem - TIME to create our own economy, take accountability for our life & our gifts and passion-it-forward so that others may prosper as well!

Overall... not as controversial a read as I had expected and most of it was covered in his introduction video series. Still... he's a brilliant and interesting man!
19 reviews1 follower
December 30, 2012
Not bad for a weekend read, good book list in the back. Stretched my mind to get it around some of the more radical predictions he was espousing, then when the precious metals chapter came in I lost interested and breezed through the rest of the book. What makes gold better during an apocalypse then water?
5 reviews
February 4, 2020
Compelling, eye-opening, predictions about the future, in which some have actually already come true. Randy does a great job at framing the new situation wee all find ourselves in; archaic systems that are actually hurting progress economically and emotionally. His perspective on sorting yourself out first on many fronts, makes you more valuable to the people you wish to help really struck me. It makes sense of the feelings I experienced when going through those stages. Well worth the read no matter where you are in life.
Profile Image for Cara.
Author 1 book1 follower
November 19, 2019
I really wasn't impressed with the first half of this book. His predictions have largely not panned out as he claimed and I just didn't feel like I was learning much. However, I kept at it and there was some useful information and food for thought in the second half of the book. Definitely made me remember that I need to think differently if I want different results than what I am getting right now.
Profile Image for Jillian Nowry.
52 reviews
August 15, 2022
3.5/4 stars. Taught me how to think differently and approach my career and personal life from a different angle. Enjoyed this text, although it took a while to get through. But definitely an easy read.
Profile Image for Fit4Life218.
416 reviews1 follower
December 20, 2019
An excellent book for the motivated individuals who want to make waves (in a positive way!) during this crazy ride called LIFE! 🤗

Happy reading friends! 🙌
2 reviews
March 25, 2024
This is an average read but quite repetitive. Author kept elaborating on how playing risky is the new safe for like every chapter, not a bad book but it could have been better.

Profile Image for Кристин Кръстева.
12 reviews4 followers
March 21, 2017
Ценни съвети и интересна гледна точка. Минус една звезда заради замъглената концепция.
Profile Image for Lance.
73 reviews1 follower
November 27, 2013
I love out-of-the-box thinking, and Gage does not disappoint on that count. It starts with the title and continues on to the last page. But Gage is not flipping the world upside down just for kicks. He makes very cogent arguments to support why approaching the world "backwards" is the best way to navigate the world of the 21st century.

I love Gage's writing style. Very informal, it feels like he's in the same room with me having a friendly chat. But what he offers is much more full of depth than idle chit-chat. While he acknowledges the challenges of a constantly changing world, he also recognizes the opportunities. As Gage himself admits, "the greatest opportunities are the ones that solve challenges for other people."

Some might decry Gage's tome as a devotion to the god of doom and gloom. After all, Gage shows how disruptive technology will eliminate millions of jobs, how we could be replaced by an animal or even a clone, how the government is probably run by the ethics of a Ponzi scheme, how there could be a New World Order, how everything you were told about ego is wrong, how selfishness is good, and how cataclysmic change is just around the corner. I agree that it sounds pretty dire on the surface. Where Gage excels is in signaling the opportunities amidst the challenges.

Here's a great example. Gage announces that selfishness is a virtue and then attempts to delineate what that really means from what it doesn't: "But when your self-expression is only about you and scoring more points than anyone else, the victory is a shallow one. You'll reach a stage where you will hunger for something with more meaning. You understand that prosperity isn't really about reaching success, but living a successful life. . . . The path to prosperity is making the natural transition from success to significance." It all starts and ends with thinking about things in a different way. Gage weaves it throughout his book but really pounds that point home in the final pages.

As Gage says, ideas will be the currency of the future, and Gage shows how to ditch the herd mentality and be a contrarian in the midst of conformity. I highly recommend this book and will likely reference it again and again as the future unfolds.
Profile Image for Veronika.
16 reviews
July 16, 2013
It was nice hearing another one of Randy's books and seeing the future through his eyes with all the challenges and opportunities it's supposed to present.
But "Why you're dumb, sick and broke" is still my favorite - bahnbrechend. It really changed my way of thinking and how i view the world two years ago. Guess i'd be reading it again soon - I'm sure there's much more in this book I didn't get back then.
I'm not that much into futuristic scenarios, but there was still enough of Randy and his philosophy in Risky for me to enjoy it.
There's a chapter on selfishness again, named 'Selfishness Is the New Altruism', which i particularly like. Randy's a contrarian - he views things otherwise than most people do and being "selfish" is one of those things. In order to give you shall first have. Most of us tend to put others on first place and to sacrifice our needs and wants 'because of our families, etc'. Whereas one should first take care of their own needs, in order to take care of and help others, he says and it perfectly makes sense to me. It's all right to do charity and help others as long as it's your conscious decision. And it's not all right to view your life as a service to others and neglect yourself completely.
Profile Image for Lisa  Carlson.
689 reviews15 followers
March 14, 2013
This book simply confirms what savvy, smart and contrarians already do; take a risk and believe in themselves. At just under 140 pages this book doesn't share anything new that you wouldn't have figured out for yourself if you are a confident, intelligent person. If Gage is making his money being a 'prosperity coach' then there are lots of insecure people out there; far more than I would have imagined. Find those things that make you happy, do your research, find a wise mentor, trust your instincts to follow what you are good at. If your heart is telling you to take the risk than do it. There.. all that said and you don't have to pay $25 for it.
Profile Image for Allen Bauer.
1 review2 followers
February 10, 2013
A great book that shows you how technology will rapidly change our lives and jobs in the near future. While this initially seems scary, Randy then goes on to show you all the new and exciting opportunities that will also come from this. So either get stuck in the past and suffer, or read this book to get ahead of what's to come. This was a short but great read and I finished it in a few hours.
Profile Image for Johnny.
5 reviews
January 22, 2015
started with varying predictions for the future, some of which have come true and many yet to be seen. Gage then progresses to tear down modern education and explain that we must think differently and adapt to be successful. Been there, read that. Lastly, Gage attempts to justify how selfishness should be our guise for successfulness.
Profile Image for Karla Ticona.
Author 3 books11 followers
June 30, 2022
Absolutelly brilliant!
Amé este libro por tres razones:
1. La narrativa exquisita, describe cada posible escenario con un detalle vibrante y muy bien fundado.
2. Las secciones, al estilo de una obra de ópera.
3. El final, por qué el ego es bueno. Es parte del ser humano y cómo usarlo a favor de una manera noble y trascendente.
Recomiendo ampliamente este libro!
Profile Image for Farshad Asl.
Author 13 books11 followers
November 18, 2012
This is a good book with lots of information. It's a positive, practical and an eye opener...about the possibilities that we all can take advantage of IF WE PAY ATTENTION. Cash is no longer KING, creativity is king!
"Risky is the new SAFE" is not only a book...it's a MINDSET!
Thanks Randy!!!
Profile Image for Kim.
66 reviews1 follower
February 11, 2013
5 star +++! I wish someone as brilliant as Mr. Gage would run for President. This book was amazing. A real eye opener, even though my eyes are very much open to the problems with our government and society, I was still completely compelled by this book!
4 reviews
October 9, 2013
Was definitely worth a read considering humans are averse to change. This book is realistic and upright in terms of how technology will change in the near future. It helps in keeping abreast with changes which are/will take place going forward.
Profile Image for Erica Cover.
5 reviews1 follower
October 28, 2012
Very inspiring and motivational must read for anyone who wants to find happiness and prosperity.
14 reviews
December 8, 2012
Forward-thinking. Super fast read. Really like the list of recommended books at the end. I plan to read every one. If you wish to complement the book, watch the "Networked Society" documentary.
Profile Image for Steve Coscia.
219 reviews4 followers
December 14, 2012
Thought provoking book (heavy on the provoking) for business folks. The book's content might content may upset some readers, but overall this is a book to read with an open mind.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews

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