Success in life or business often comes following a critical moment of risk being involved.

I’m not a fan of the show but I happened to catch the X-Factor semi finals last weekend and I am glad I did because something magical took place.

After auditions, boot camps and weeks of live competition facing the public vote it was now time for one last push to nail a spot in the final.

All the hard work each contestant had put in was now hanging in the balance. Everything was riding on what happened next.

In a situation like that what would you do?

Would you play it safe and go for the tried and tested? Or would you do something radically different so close to the finish line?

One contestant chose the latter.

Fleur East was busy rehearsing and deep into preparing for the biggest night of her life.

With just a couple of days left until the weekend semi final show, her team decided to take a huge gamble and change her selected song for an unreleased track from Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars.

Remember this is a show which is voted on by the general public, so performing a song that most people wouldn’t have heard is well….a little nuts!

We’ve all heard the old adage ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’ right?

This was cometh the moment, cometh the woman.

Fleur East’s performance was truly amazing. In just shy of 3 minutes she went from being an ‘also ran contestant’ to stage rocking super star blowing away all that stood between her and a place in the final.

It was one of those spine tingling, hairs standing on the back of your neck  kind of moments.

Her performance was acclaimed as being in the top 3 of all time in all formats of the show anywhere in the world by Simon Cowell.

So what’s my point?

We all have different levels of risk that we are prepared to accept but sometimes we have to push the boundaries in order to get what we really want.

Of course, there is no guarantee it will pay off but should everything come together the results can be incredible.

Those moments become defining, pivotal and even seen as genius.

To be in the game and get what you truly want,  you have to let go of playing it safe and be ready to put it all on the line.