Here is an interesting way of looking at risk ( via Seth Godin ):
If you’re trying to reduce risk, do the hard part first. That way, if it fails, you’ll have minimized your time and effort. On the other hand, if you’re looking for buy-in and commitment so you can get through the hard part, do it last. People are terrible at ignoring sunk costs, and the early wins and identity shifts that come from the easy successes at the beginning will give you momentum as you go.
He's not wrong. We are generally bad at ignoring sunk costs, which is why they have to tell you in business school that you need to ignore sunk costs. It doesn't come naturally.
We are also victims of temporal myopia. Meaning, we tend to emphasize short-term items and discount things that are in the future. So if two things are equally risky, we'll likely perceive the immediate one as more risky than the one that will occur in a few years.
Some things to keep in mind as we go about managing risk.