We entertain ourselves with modest risk - the scary movie, the party full of strangers, the weekend in Vegas. But when it comes to our careers, when self-identity and security hang in the balance, most of us don't like to play the odds very aggressively. While some of us are natural born thrill seekers, the majority of us are hardwired to avoid risk. But, Anne Kreamer argues, in the current workplace, that very avoidance could be putting us in a far more precarious position than we know.

Kreamer makes a compelling case that we all need to think and act more like entrepreneurs on our own behalf and become practitioners of the art of risk. Through proprietary research and her own keen record as a trend spotter, Kreamer convinces us of the necessity to embrace risk as a healthy and forward-thinking attribute - and a way to improve the quality and longevity of our working lives.

Anne Kreamer is the author of It's Always Personal and Going Gray. She has worked as a columnist for Fast Company and Martha Stewart Living and is a blogger on HarvardBusinessReview.org and NextAvenue.org. Her work has appeared in Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Real Simple, and Travel & Leisure.