It's a stressful game, some enjoy the stress. Now that I'm employed, not so much.
You can decide what level to play at and grow as you like, as you get better.
It's with this approach that I'll probably always return to Eve, play it for a bit, stop and repeat.
Or if not pod you at least destroy your ship and steal all your stuff.
It's never zero, though. Which is a far better situation compared to many MMO games where they really have zero risk areas (or the whole game is zero risk).