Why is Risk the Greatest Concept in Life?
What Happens if you Don’t Take Risks?
Stop sitting at the shore living in fear for the next big wave to get all of your clothes wet; Learn to surf and go for it.
Life is inherently risky.
By being alive, you risk dying by crossing the street
You risk getting hit by a bus.
There are so many things that could go wrong and probably will go wrong in your life
And a lot of these things are completely out of your control.
You can’t escape bad things happening to you
You feel pain anyways
So, why not feel the pain of trying and failing rather than the pain of apathy and despair and neglect?
This doesn’t mean spend all of your money on the latest crypto thing and hope to get rich
Because that’s just dumb
Start off small
Try to strike up a conversation with the person in the elevator or the grocery checkout.
You might risk being perceived as sort of a weird person that people don’t want to talk to, but that’s a great example of a risk that is kind of worth taking
Because even if you are seen as a weirdo and they literally go: Why are you talking to me?
That sort of rejection when you voluntarily subject yourself and you are aware that that could happen, but you do it anyways.
That is an empowering rejection.
That’s the thing about risk when you are aware of the negative downsides, but you make a calculated decision to go for it anyway.
When that downside happens, you at least respect yourself for trying.
We all know the story of Elon Musk who poured all his fortune on Tesla and SpaceX and almost gone bankrupt, two industries considered highly risky at the time. Today tesla is the reference in electric vehicles and SpaceX is the leader in commercial space exploration
So, as you take more risks in life as you step outside of your comfort zone, you start to get better at evaluating risk.
You start to be a better judge of what could go wildly wrong with very little upside versus what has like pretty good upside and very little downside.
You start to develop resilience.
You start to develop this bounce back nature this anti fragility.
So, it’s never too late to start taking more risks.
Obviously, don’t be dumb if you have a family.
Don’t bank everything on the stock market, especially right now.
Don’t quote me on that.
It’s just a hunch.
But like I said from the start, life is inherently risky, you know, by not taking risks and not getting comfortable with risks.
That’s risky in and of itself.
In fact, it’s worse than risky because not only do you risk not getting what you eventually want in life, you pretty much guarantee it.
So, if you’re starting to feel sort of apathetic in life
Stop sitting at the shore living in fear for the next big wave to get all of your clothes wet
Learn to surf and expect to be bad at the start.
But you’ll get better.
