Gordon Gekko, (in my favourite film which does not involve Drew Barrymore, Cameran Diaz or Julia Roberts) said “...greed, for lack of a better word, is good”.

What he really should have said is: “risk is good”. Only by taking risk can an investor aim to achieve real returns in excess of the market rate of return. The corollary is that by making any investment outside of the risk-free rate, the investor is taking risk. There is no such thing as risk-free returns outside of the risk-free rate. 

Investors should take risk. Otherwise they are not investors. They are merely risk-free investors in disguise. Embracing risk is the sign of a good investor. 

Investors should seek risk. Risk is good. That does not mean having only one investment view with a do or die portfolio. Risk needs to be appropriate to the prospective return and with respect to consequences of being wrong. No investor will be anywhere near 100% correct (good investors will be 60% correct) on their investment views. Scaling risk appropriately to ensure the ability to fight another day when the investment view is wrong, is an essential part of managing a portfolio.