If dosed properly, it could have made a substantial positive impact. Certainly there is risk involved, but then most things are risky when running a business. Going for safety leads to employment, not to running a company.
Did he really not have _any_ sense of a proper dose? Seems unlikely.
I will say that hiring people who are risk averse is great for middle managers who will say NO to most opportunities because they're more afraid of failure than they are interested in opportunity.
Hire risk takers and you get risk takers.