The alpha male takes risks.

One of the characteristics of being an alpha male is that he is willing to take risks to improve his situation. This is in contrast to the Beta Male who, by his very nature, plays it safe.

Perhaps it would be good to define what a Beta Male is versus an Alpha Male. In primate societies (of which we are a part) there is a social hierarchy that has evolved into us humans from our primate ancestors. This hierarchy, generally expressed in the males of primate cultures, can be separated into two basic groups. The first is the Alpha Male, or the leader of the company. The alpha male is in charge of the security of the troop from predators and other threatening males from other troops. In addition, the alpha male is also in charge of meeting the other needs of the company. In human society, the Alpha Male, the tribal leader, is in charge of the emotional, financial, social, nutritional, and physical well-being of his tribal members. This is not new, it is simple human nature.

That said, the alpha male will also find himself attractive to women. Females, being smaller and physically weaker, as well as slower, need protection if they are not only going to survive in the jungle, but survive long enough to reproduce and pass on their genes to the next generation. So women are programmed to be attracted to the alpha male; this remains true in humans. Women want an assertive man who is the leader of men, and who takes care of all his needs, and the needs of the entire tribe, and does so from a position of strength and authority.

The Beta Male, on the other hand, is a follower. He is passive aggressive, meaning he does things covertly (whereas the alpha male is more direct). In human terms, this can manifest as trying to “bribe” people into liking them, doing favors for others to win them back, going after women they’re attached to, and a host of other things. Beta males are really classified by their passivity towards any given situation. What also follows is that Beta Male will resort to backstabbing, gossiping, and whining when he doesn’t get his way.

Now that we’ve established that, we can see the basis for why Alpha Male and Beta Male differ in the risk department. If a male is going to be an alpha male, that means he will put himself in danger and put himself at more risk. Frankly, who risks more than the leader of a group? Think of the officer who commands the army, or the quarterback of the team, or perhaps the CEO of a company. The higher you rise in the social hierarchy, the more people expect your demise and the faster they want that to happen so they can take your place. Sometimes that’s done directly by other alpha males, and sometimes beta males do it passively.

So, being the leader of the group means that you are exposing yourself to “attacks” from others. That also means that if the alpha male fails, the lives of the entire tribe (or in our case, the company, military unit, or football team, for example) are at risk. So the alpha male has to confidently take the risks that come his way.

But the Beta Male, by nature, is someone who is in the shadow of the Alpha Male. Just like the Alpha Male (and any other male) he too wants to climb the chain and be a leader, but for some reason he lacks the ability or perhaps the confidence to do so. Beta Male’s nature is to “play it safe” and wait for the opportunity to fall into his lap. Once again, Beta Male will resort to passive tactics such as bribery, ass kissing, or doing favors for someone to be rewarded with a higher position in the tribe. (Remember, tribe in this sense means any organization or group that man may be a part of)

So the Beta Male doesn’t take any chances; in a sense, he eats leftovers from the Alpha Male’s table and is happy with it. That means his loyalty will quickly shift to whoever has the ability to best feed him, that is, give him what he wants. By the way, all males start out as beta males, but some grow up to be alpha males: those are the guys who take the risks in life.

This can certainly be seen in a business environment. There are some guys who are drones, who play it safe, who do just enough work to keep their jobs and get ahead. Sometimes they get promoted simply because someone else gets promoted or dies, but often they get to a comfort level and just stay there. They trade the high lifestyle of the Alpha Male for the security of the Beta Male.

How about romance? Well, you can clearly see it there too. Have you ever been to a club and seen a bunch of guys standing around with a drink on their chest watching the action? Guys who go there expecting (or worse, WAITING) for a girl to walk up and talk to them? They don’t dare risk being knocked down, so they stand there and wait for people to come to them.

Then there are the club boys who are at risk of being brought down. They approach people, specifically they approach women; sometimes they reject them and sometimes they manage to establish a connection. But the fact that they are willing to take the risk opens them up to far more possibilities than the Passive Beta Male who won’t make any connections because he won’t be “taking the risk” of being shot down.

On top of that, women WANT men who are willing to take risks. In the days of our ancestors, the guy who could take risks was the guy who would probably be the Alpha Male, that meant he was going to be a leader, and THAT meant he would not only have her strengths and resources to protect her and her potential offspring , but he had the resources of the entire tribe at his disposal. If survival is the name of the game, then the woman who is attached to the Alpha Male has the best chance of survival.

That means the very act of approaching a woman—that is, showing her you’d take the risk—automatically activates all the attraction buttons in a woman’s brain. That alone gets her points in his book and increases the chances that the man can make a connection with the woman. The Beta Male, on the other hand, LOSES points by standing still and being passive when it comes to women. That means that in the romantic world, no one starts out with a score of zero: you either start out positive (the alpha male who takes a chance and reaches out) or negative (the beta male who passively sits back and watches).

We can’t escape the brain wiring that brought us here. In our jungle days, it was the risk-taking Alpha Male who became the Alpha Male, who had the troop to help him survive (as he helped her survive) who came to breed with the females of the world. That brain wiring that got us here is still alive and well in our brains, so it’s the guy who’s assertive and takes risks who ends up winning the girl in the end. Not just the girl, but the job, the money, and even things like fame, fortune, and glory.