It Is Important for People to Take Risks, Both in Their Professional Lives and Their Personal Lives. Do You Think the Advantages of Taking Risks Outweigh the Disadvantages?

Lilie King
Written by Lilie

7.5 in Academic Writing

June 19, 2022

It is important for people to take risks, both in their professional lives and their personal lives. Do you think the advantages of taking risks outweigh the disadvantages?

This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Writing Task 2.

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Sample Essay

It is important to make some risky moves in career as well as in personal life. Although this may harm a person in the short term, it allows them to create new opportunities and I believe this advantage far outweighs any potential disadvantages.

Making a risky move may hurt a person short term. Take, for example, adults who are psychologically controlled by their parents because they still receive financial support from them. If they stop relying on their parents so that they can be free to go after their dreams, they may face the short-term downside of losing the comfort their parents’ money provides. The same can be true for making a career change that involves a big pay cut. However, I do not think that a short-term sacrifice should be seen as a major disadvantage in life because it can pay off greatly in the long run.

On the positive side, risks bring opportunities. For instance, if Priscilla Chan’s grandparents hadn’t been courageous enough to move to the US from Vietnam, Chan wouldn’t have had the opportunity to study at Harvard, let alone meet and marry Mark Zuckerberg. If Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t dropped out of Harvard to focus on building Facebook, it could have probably been another platform, rather than Facebook, that became the world’s biggest social media giant. I think that opportunities like these are extremely important because they can be life-changing.

In conclusion, although taking risks may harm people in the short term, I believe this downside is greatly outweighed by the upside that the risks they take can create life-changing opportunities for them. (267 words)

How to Vary Your Language

Take Risks
  • Make Risky Moves
Professional Life
  • Career
Personal Life
  • Private Life

Example-Led Paragraph

You probably noticed that, in the two body paragraphs, I only used examples to develop the topic sentences. I learned this method from the ex-examiner IELTS Simon. He calls paragraphs like these example-led paragraphs.

You can use this method of directly giving an example after a topic sentence to answer all Tasks 2 questions. But I mainly use this method to answer “advantages outweigh disadvantages” and “discuss both views” because, for these two types of questions, if I give reasons as well as examples, I will certainly end up writing too many words. Especially for this question, you need to talk about both professional life and personal life. This method really helps to cut words.

How to Use “Let Alone”

3-Day Writing Task 2 Challenge

28 CommentsLeave A Comment

  1. I thought that I should talk about just my opinion which is advantage in the body paragraph, like in agree or disagree essay. also, I use essential for people instead of important.
    Thanks for the video.

  2. Hi, I am a great fan of your well-organized website. But I am a little bit confused about your essay writing style, while almost everybody suggests using general statement(hook statement) at the start of any essay but you don’t use any kind of sentence at the beginning. what should i do now

  3. I have a bit confusion regarding using ‘I’ and other subjective pronouns in non-opinion essays (discussion, problem/solution, advantage/disadvantage). My tutor used to suggest for not using it. Could you make it clarify?

  4. A little bit confused about the conclusion. Does it mean downside outweighed by upside? Does it mean disadvantages outweighed advantages?

    1. Hi, Cynthia. “Advantage” and “upside” are synonyms; so are “disadvantage” and “downside”.

      1. Hi Lilie, I also confused about the conclusion, correct me if I am wrong.
        you said: (I believe this downside is greatly outweighed by the upside…)
        I understand from this sentence the disadvantages outweigh advantages.

      2. In the intro, the active voice is used, while in the conclusion, the passive voice is used. Hope this helps!

  5. In the modern world most of the people like to get risks both in their career lives and private lives. Sometimes it may important, but sometimes it isn’t. It depends on the situation that we faced.
    Commonly younger generation like to take risks for their lives. In their private lives they are entertaining, thinking out of the box, trying to do new things to get some experiences for their lives. Thus for an example, some boys are love to do adventures things like; hiking, sky diving, swimming on the beach, water rafting and so on. These are terrible things but there are some advantages like, improving their self-confidence, fearless for anything and also helpful for build healthiest and strongest body. But there is also a disadvantage. That is the risk of loss of the life.
    In the professional lives sometimes it is important to take risks. Sometimes our salary scale is insufficient for our daily routine. So we need to take a risk for our job. We can move into the new one. It may be a best or a worst decision, but we need to take that risk. As a example, Thomas Alva Edison was the person who invented ‘Light Bulb’ was a person who neglects from his school. He tried more and more finally he invented the valuable thing. If he didn’t take that risk we haven’t this precious thing.
    To recapitulate, both private and professional lives taking risks have more gains and loss.
    Lilie please correct my answer.

  6. Hello Lilie, I took my IELTS exam recently and I got a 7 in writing. Your website and YouTube videos really helped me achieve my dream and you even responded to my queries. I am eternally grateful to you.

    May Allah grant you more beneficial knowledge.

  7. Dear Lilie can you please check my writing?
    When we say life is sequence of choices between two ways, there is not only a good and safe way but also a risky and dangerous way. There might be far more loss than profit time to time. Even though we know there is possibility to be damaged, we consider to choose difficult way. Whether in a personal or professional situation, we cannot choose for only our own good. I personally believe this makes us human-like-human.
    There is well known difficult issue, managing family and work. It sometimes happens to choose whether making more money or spending time with family. I’ve seen many people who chose work for their career and salary, but they ended up giving up good company and came back to family. I believe we as human need emotional interaction rather than intersections in bank account.
    Some who take risks are more likely to concentrate on their work and make good result. Since they are in unfavourable condition comparing to others, it seems to motivate them to keep in the track which links to beneficial outcomes. However it is absolutely not easy to choose disadvantageous condition by oneself. That’s why they look brave and respectful, which give some advantages to their images and professions.
    In brief, we could choose easy and quick delivery food, but we sometimes decide to cook ourselves which even could end up in bad taste. It is because we can feel various emotions and senses while shopping, stirring and plating. All these accomplishments are worth paying for rather following easy-simple-answers.

  8. Dear Lilie, what do you think of my essay? It is the first time I’ve written it. Thanks in advance!

    There has been controversy about whether people should make risky moves in their career as well as in private lives. From my perspective, despite some drawbacks related to taking risks, there are actually more merits we can acquire from this.

    On the one hand, risk-taking can be beneficial for people. Not only can it provide people with new opportunities in their lives, but it also can influence on people’s behavior. For example, some people relish doing extreme sports with a view to filling their organisms with endorphins and adrenaline in perilous situations. Moreover, it is a perfect way to reveal stress. However, others have to risk due to their profession. Take firefighters, for instance, they risk their life to rescue those who are in trouble. Although firefighters may be harmed in the short term, their work is crucial and extremely grateful. What is more, risky situations teach people to make fast and spontaneous decisions.

    On the other hand, many people involved in extreme sports often find themselves on the edge of a catastrophe. They cannot evaluate negative consequences of risk-taking. As an example, we can take Michael Schumacher, a professional racer facing risks every day, who had an accident skiing in the mountains. After that he went into a deep coma and is still in it. Furthermore, if somebody takes a huge risk connected with business, for example, and fails, this person can lose everything they have in life.

    In conclusion, despite the fact that making risky steps has several downsides, I reckon that the advantages far overweigh any potential disadvantages in the long term.

  9. Yeah, when I saw you same essay, I was surprise that it’s very similar with Simon’s style. At the end of your article, I saw his name. 3Q, give us a wonderful article😀😀😀

  10. Thank you so much, God will continue to bless you and your family.Pls can you make videos on reading, please 🙏🙏🙏🙏

  11. It is often debated over the topic that individuals ought to be more generally risk-takers when having to make a choice rather than being conscious of whether they are deciding on occupational matters or private life ones. I believe while it is vital to have an audacious attitude when it comes to choosing various paths in life, it should be also considered to know when to act consciensecly and meticulously.

    Taking risks has several clear advantages for an individual. First of all, being capable of acting in situations when stakes are high with full awareness of the consequences and possible outcomes would lead to self-development. Moreover, when one anticipates the results and prepares oneself, one will gain more confidence and experience deciding on their own. For example, Elon Musk, as an entrepreneur, established several start-ups before becomings successful in his Tesla company and in order to succeed he was forced to take risky decisions. Secondly, risk-takers often learn from their decisions in addition to acquiring certain skills. Furthermore, if people do the common tasks, they would not learn particular essentials in their life span. For instance, in order to carve a niche for oneself, which might have uncertainties in its accomplishment, one has to learn to face tasks that they might never have to deal with them.

    On the other hand, it is gravely important to evaluate the facts concerning their decisions and that might contribute to failures if the potential results are not anticipated shrewdly. What is more, diffidence is an inevitable outcome of such decisions. Surveys have shown that astute individuals tend to have more self-esteem due to their resolution compared with ones who are generally more taking risks.

    In summary, while being able to make decisions more freely and with levels of uncertainty could account for several benefits, such as self-development and acquiring various skills, it could result in lower confidence because of underestimation of particular factors. So, one should always prepare oneself for the potential scenarios resulting from their decisions.

  12. Hello, I would just like to ask if it is ok to write only one advantage/disadvantage in your essay if it asks the advantages and disadvantages? You have done it a lot in your essays, I’m taking my exam tomorrow and I am still very confused with this matter. You mention that in order to get a band 7+, there needs to only be one main idea each paragraph. However other ielts teachers list two advantages/disadvantages in one paragraph and they explain them just as well.

    When you took the exam, were you given a question that asks for advantages/disadvantages or causes/solutions? Did you get a band 7+ even if you only wrote 1 for each? Im sorry if the question is too direct or inappropriate, I’m really running out of time here :<. Thank you!

    1. Hi, yes, it’s 100% correct to write only one advantage and one disadvantage in an advantages-outweigh-disadvantages essay. Although I didn’t get an outweigh question in the actual exams, I asked an ex-examiner and he confirmed that this method is correct.

      However, you should definitely write more than one advantage and more than one disadvantage if the question is “what are the advantages and disadvantages”.

      For causes and solutions, if the question is something like “why is this the case”, you can write only one cause. However, if the question is “what are the causes”, you should write more than one cause.

      Hope this helps.

  13. Please have my essay reviewed. I have my tests on 25 of June.

    In this 21st century, the risk is often involved in many situations. Therefore, it is of prime significance for individuals to take a risk not only in professional life but also in private life. While this statement certainly holds both merits and demerits, this essay will substantiate how the strengths of taking risks outweigh the weaknesses.

    On the one hand, to achieve higher success in life, one should take certain risks. Risks are solely involved in decision-making as for every behavior individuals have to make decisions. So, it is their decision to which risk is attached. For instance, had not if the group of engineers and architects had taken the risk of building the great Burj Khalifa in Dubai, it would not have been the biggest skyscraper on the earth. Another significant point of consideration is that, with risks involved, the amount of clarity and mathematics such as measurements and accounting involved gets much attention. Since opportunity does not come knocking twice, people should really consider taking risks only after doing overall research on the matter.

    On the other hand, there are often many risks associated with taking risks. One’s normal life could get devastated by being involved in risks having negative consequences and in certain cases turning back might not be an option. For example, one of my friend’s brothers took the risk of going to Canada illegally paying around $20,000, and ended up reaching Cambodia with neither money nor a passport. Luckily, however, he was back home safe and sound. Certainly, if risks are taken without understanding every single detail then it might ruin people’s lives. Therefore, it is suggested to take risks only after knowing their positive as well as negative consequences.

    In conclusion, however, there are certain disadvantages of taking risks, I believe risks that are taken after proper homework obviously have sound advantages.

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