I praise CBS for taking a risk, which is always the price you

Hear, O seekers of wisdom, the words of Tom Selleck, who once declared: “I praise CBS for taking a risk, which is always the price you pay for opportunity. This is not standard movie of the week storytelling. I think movies of the week have fallen into a niche and that isn’t my niche.” His words, though spoken of television and film, carry the eternal weight of truth: that nothing great is won without risk, and that to seize true opportunity, one must walk paths beyond the safe and ordinary.

The meaning is thus: Selleck honors the power of risk, for he knows it is the coin with which men and women purchase opportunity. To remain forever in the circle of safety is to remain forever small, bound by the chains of predictability. The “movie of the week”, safe, formulaic, and predictable, represents the niche of complacency—a path well-trodden, offering no danger but also no true greatness. To rise above such confines, one must dare to create something bold, something untested, something that may fail but may also shine with lasting glory.

The ancients too spoke of this truth. Consider the tale of Odysseus, who might have chosen the safety of his homeland after Troy, yet instead endured trials upon the open sea. His risk was great—storms, monsters, gods themselves opposing him—yet his name endured as the cunning wanderer, the one who ventured where others dared not. Like CBS in Selleck’s tale, Odysseus knew that to remain in the niche of comfort was to vanish into obscurity, but to risk was to win immortality of story.

History bears another witness in the story of the Wright brothers. In a world where men scoffed at the notion of flight, they risked ridicule, ruin, and even their lives to attempt what none had done before. Others stayed in their niche—engineers building safer machines on the ground—but the Wrights lifted humanity into the sky. Their risk was the price of opportunity, and the world was forever changed. Selleck’s words echo this same principle: to praise the boldness of stepping outside the niche, and to reject the chains of the ordinary.

At the heart of Selleck’s wisdom is also the call to integrity of vision. He does not scorn the “movie of the week” itself, but declares that it is not his niche. This reveals the deeper truth that each person must know their calling, their path, their craft. To dwell in another’s niche, to labor in forms that do not fit one’s spirit, is to betray the gift given within. The risk is not only in venturing forth into untested waters, but in choosing fidelity to one’s own voice, even when the safer path tempts with security.

Let the lesson, then, be this: risk is the cost of growth, and opportunity belongs only to those who dare. In your own life, do not cling always to what is safe, to what is expected, to the niche carved by others. Instead, ask yourself what path is truly yours, what calling burns in your heart. And when you find it, praise those who support your risk, as Selleck praised CBS, and walk forward boldly, knowing that failure itself is nobler than a life of timid repetition.

What, then, should you do? When faced with a choice between safety and growth, lean toward growth. When offered the chance to repeat the ordinary, choose instead to attempt the extraordinary. Support others who dare, even when their path seems uncertain. And above all, cultivate the courage to declare, as Selleck did: “That isn’t my niche.” For to know what is not yours is the first step in claiming what is.

Thus let these words echo across time: “Risk is the price you pay for opportunity.” They are not only the words of an actor, but the creed of every soul who dares to build, to dream, and to live beyond the narrow walls of safety. Embrace this truth, and your life will not be a niche repeated, but a story remembered.