Growing up, I watched religiously every comedy video made by Billy Connolly. He was my favourite comedian by a country mile.

The ‘Big Yin’ was a one off and seeing him bouncing about the stage always had me in stitches. I was lucky enough to see him live in London once and my sides were sore as he went through a 90-minute series of stories and opinions. Later in his career he took to presenting a series of travel shows.

Again, I was hooked. In one such series he travelled through Australia on a motorbike of sorts and I remember vividly the episode in which he climbed the Sydney Bridge.

He made it look easy and at the same time fun. When he reached the top, I gasped with excitement as much as he did.

I wanted that feeling that he was clearly experiencing and decided right there as I watched it that climbing Sydney Bridge had to be done. The only problem with this was that Australia wasn't on my ‘must see list’. It was too far away and too expensive to get to. It also was the nearest thing to Jurassic Park on earth and had far too many things that could kill you. Friends had told me stories of sharks, crocodiles, jellyfish, and the fact that you must be careful where u swim, sit or picnic. It really didn't appeal to me.

Billy Connolly showed no fear as a comedian or as an actor and this is definitely one of the things which attracted me to him. He took many risks on his comedic material and in his film and TV roles. He danced naked in the Arctic and wasn't afraid to look for comedy in material other comedians would shy away from. Even as he got older, his propensity to take risks never diminished. This got me thinking about how we view risk and does age diminish it. Is there a point in your life where you say: "That's it, I'm not taking any more risks?"

Was I becoming more risk averse? The answer for me was yes and no. Eight years ago I did get to visit Australia and my wife had family there and it doubled up as a honeymoon. The whole long flight over I thought about climbing the Sydney Bridge and as soon as we hit Sydney I bolted to buy tickets. There I was, dressed in a jump suit leading a line of 12 others (I had to lead of course) up to the climb. Up to that point in life, a bike having no brakes or driving a car fast didn't bother me. Leaping onto a wall or doing a bungee jump didn't take a wrinkle out of me. Something however changed that day.

For anyone who has done the climb, everyone is hooked on to a safety wire in a line and you walk along a ledge first about 100m above the six lanes of traffic which you see below a stainless steel mesh and then you swing out over the water to climb up. It was at this stage I froze like a statue. My wife who didn't want to do it asked me what was wrong.

I was petrified. Something snapped.

I had robotically got to the top but now I wanted down. My brain kept saying: "Why are you doing this?" repeatedly. After a lot of Aussie style persuasion ("Are you chickening out mate?") I finally composed myself and finished the climb. My legs were like jelly and my nerves were wrecked. I couldn't look down or around for the next 2 hours of pure hell.

Was I glad to get back on solid ground? My days of heights and dare devil stunts were gone. When everyone asked me "why did you do it if you’re afraid of heights?" I replied, "I saw Billy Connolly do it and it seemed easy." And until that day I wasn't afraid of heights. I could tackle a ladder or scaffold without a worry. I could buck leap onto a wall and run like the wind. All that changed on that fateful day in Sydney. Taking any kind of physical risk on this 40-year-old body was gone.

My appetite for financial risk however didn't diminish. In fact, as I have got older my appetite for making a deal has in fact increased.

As a younger man, I always thought that as I got older and more financially secure I would become more risk adverse. I always heard people say: "If I won the lotto I would buy a house in Spain and retire". I saw the logic in that when I was younger but now the thought of doing nothing later in life really scares me. When you think about it most people see younger people as the risk takers. We perceive them as full of youth and to be ready to risk everything on a business venture.

This however is not the case. In the last twenty years, things have changed. Younger people and particularly Millennials are not seen as ‘bankable’ risk by lenders.

Banks lend on security and many young people lack assets to borrow against. Other young business professionals also see risk as unnecessary and use other ways to raise capital (crowd sourcing etc). Many of the Silicon Valley generation really started ventures which attracted venture capital in return for stock options. Borrowing money and taking on personal financial risk was really never an option for that generation.

Let's face it, if Facebook had walked into a high street bank for a loan the first thing that a Bank Manager would ask is "what assets do you have to secure against the loan?" Many budding digital entrepreneurs would rather work on their ventures for free tirelessly for years that take on personal loans.

So, are young people spurning risk? The answer is complex but many younger entrepreneurs have developed business models which approach risk differently. Working virtually from home cuts the costs which traditional business models had to pay.

For example, a fashion designer can use pop up shops or sell online which avoids the huge costs of premises. Younger people will use social platforms at a fraction of traditional media costs and in most occasions to better effect. The type of start-up has changed and the way of reaching consumers of your product or service has been revolutionised by the internet. Risk is now measured and where possible shared. This of course will have consequences for lending institutions.

Risk taking is seen by many as a generic trait which doesn't diminish with age. In my experience, physical risk does diminish in many people as they get older.

They see the chance of injury as more real. I'm always amazed when I go skiing (I now watch) and I see people in their 60's and 70's flying down those slopes like James Bond. An injury at that age could be fatal or at least mean a long recovery period. For some there is never a fear factor -physically or in business. Risk taking never diminishes.

When it comes to business there are quite a few who demonstrate no fear of risk.Warren Buffet is 87 in August and is the fourth richest man in the world with an estimated wealth of $77bn. He lives in the same house he bought in Dundee, Omaha in 1958 for $31500 and takes a salary of $175k a year. He is a philanthropist and has agreed to give away 99% of his wealth to charity.

He doesn't carry a mobile phone or have a computer on his desk and has only ever sent one email. He reads 5 newspapers a day, drinks Coke and eats big greasy steaks. Just this week he announced an €18bn bid for Oncor Electric Delivery company. Many will say when is enough, enough? In his case, he likes working and taking calculated risks.

George Soros is 87 this August and worth $25bn. He gets up every day and makes deals and is considered one of the greatest investors in the world. Rupert Murdoch is worth $12bn dollars and again he is no spring chicken. Just recently he announced another deal to buy back Sky Shares from shareholders. The list could also include the billionaires Richard Branson, Silvio Berlusconi and many others but the point is well made. Certain people are wired to take risks and age doesn't diminish that desire to keep being successful and making more deals. Many ordinary people can't grasp this and I often hear: "Why don't they pack it in and relax on the beach?" The truth is they can't.

In my own case, the thought of completely stopping and doing nothing is not an option. My appetite for risk rather than diminishing is actually getting a ‘second wind’.

Having achieved some success, the need to achieve more is stronger than the desire to bask in its glory. Paying off one huge loan and watching a project thrive gives me and my team a new sense of let's do it again.

One thing for sure however is that I won't be climbing anything taller than a set of stairs in the next 30 years.

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