Just as you said that words are just words, little weight should be put on mistakes that have little expense. I have been taking a lot of risks over the last couple of years (calculated risk), and it seems to be paying off for now. Girls are probably harder to fool than boys, but I played a good one on my son. He was helping carry groceries in and saying how heavy the bag was and placed it on the ground. I was like dude, "you know, each time you lift something, you get a little bit stronger." After that he tried lifting it again, and was like "you're right dad." He proceeded to show me how strong he was getting with each bag. Luckily, he's only five. I'll have to be more clever in the future.
lol - one of my joys is finding ways to "trick" my daughter into learning something useful, because she misunderstands enough still :D
Calculated risks toward a goal, are part of the process. Too many people think taking "risks" means being random.