Cue Card # 208: A risk you took that has had a positive outcome

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 208

Describe a risk you took that has had a positive outcome.

You should say:

• what type of risk it was
• when you took that risk
• what inspired you to take this risk

and explain how you felt about its positive outcome.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer:

The rate of my success, resulting in taking risks, isn’t very promising except on a few occasions. Today, I would like to talk about one of those few occasions when I succeeded after taking a calculated risk.

Yes, it was more of a calculated risk because even though it exposed me to some kind of financial risk, it was counterbalanced by the assurance of a minimum benefit even if I didn’t succeed. Anyway, the risk, I am talking about, was taken by me about a year ago when I purchased a rather old model motorbike and fixed it.

The risk in buying that motorbike was that it needed some major repair work because of its old age, and very few mechanics in my town had some ideas about how to fix that type of motorbike at a reasonable cost. In other words, if those mechanics were not able to fix that motorbike at a reasonable price, the cost of fixing it would suddenly increase rather substantially. But the possible benefit of taking that risk in buying that old motorbike was that if I could fix it reasonably well and at a reasonable cost, I could easily sell it at a price as much as 10 times higher than what I really needed to spend in buying and fixing it.

However, so far, I have only talked about the possible financial benefits that primarily inspired me to take the risk. Another reason that motivated me to take that risk was that even if I wasn’t able to sell that motorbike at a profit, I could always offer it to my younger brother for his commuting from and to his university as he desperately needed his own transportation to save some valuable times on the roads, commuting on slow-moving vehicles.

But, in the end, I did succeed in fixing that motorbike and then selling it at a reasonable profit which really felt good. Besides, it was for the first time that I realized that taking risks doesn’t only bring us personal and financial success, but also teaches us how to solve tough problems in unfavourable conditions.