It Is Risky To Not Be Risky
Not taking risks has a price. Taking risks has a reward and a price. Choose your poison.
I’ll tell you how risky life is, you won’t get out of it alive — Jim Rohn
RIP Jim Rohn. What a guy.
He wasn't the typical motivational speaker. He won’t scream to hype you up, he would be calm and composed. His words were wise and precise.
When talking about people associating themselves with not taking risks because they are as the word suggests, risky, he pointed out the obvious fact — it’s all risky.
Nothing in life is free. Whatever you do or don’t do, has a price.
Not taking risks is ironically riskier than taking them. Taking a risk has a reward, not taking it has none.
It places regret.
Extremely cautious people are normal people. The normal plan is to get into high school, go to college, graduate and get a job. Stick to that job till you are 60 while saving money. Retire and enjoy the saved money.
Over 90% of the people before us (exaggeration for dramatic effect) have taken this road. It is nothing special.
I don’t want this. I didn’t grow up saying, “I want to be an employee.” I hope you didn’t either.
I want to make a difference. This wouldn’t give me that.
Plus, the rewards would not be on par with the decades of effort.
It feels like a receipt to a stress-the-rest-of-your-life transaction.
It is advertised as the cautious pathway. Reaps no rewards but has no price either — except it does.
It’s been hidden from us
The price is delayed, it seems zero — it isn’t.
Price#1: 𝚜𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜; ‘How to find your passion’
Years and years of not knowing oneself.
Imagine living with someone for your whole life and not knowing anything about them. That’d be you!
You learn about yourself by trying different things. If you become comfortable with something that isn’t a utopia for you, you are not going to search for it either.
Make no mistake, everyone has a utopia. It is no too-good-to-be-true fantasy. It is very much true
Then one fine day in your 40s or 50s you turn on your computer and search, “How do I find my passion.”
You are told to try these varieties of different things. You decide to make up a plan.
Through a stroke of dim luck, your boss decides to call you in due to some emergency.
You come back home tired and forget all about it. The paper on which the plan was to be made is in some unknown corner gathering dust before someone decided to vacuum it.
Damn the cleaner!
Price#2: *cries* “It’s another Monday!”
You sleep early, not because you want to, but because you HAVE to. Otherwise, say goodbye to those bonuses.
Monday is hell for you. The weekend passed by in a second. You barely caught a breath and now there goes your boss breathing down your neck again.
Your eyes are red as you smash buttons in your cubicle because you decided to watch a movie late last night and couldn’t catch enough sleep.
Price#3: BORINNNNNGGGG!!!!!
Imagine being Batman and having your friends find out. Now you have an issue, but an interesting one.
Can’t say the same if the most interesting thing that has happened at work all week is when your boss tripped and tore his shirt.
There is no novelty anymore. Every day is ‘another mundane day.’
Rather than waking up with a smile, you wake up with tired eyes and filthy yawns.
Everything is predictable and downright routine.
Price#4: Imagine being a multimillionaire…
Imagine a billionaire, imagine a multi-billionaire, how lucky were they?
If people pass you, you will resent them.
Conclusion: Take risks
Risks are honest and straightforward. They’ll tell you how they are going to come about more often than not.
Everything has a price.
Safe choices are just products that have been used more than others so have a medium rating.
What is the point of a life that isn’t special?
Imagine having something to wake up with a damned smile each day
That’s the dream, isn’t it? Well, it doesn’t have to be a dream, even though it is advertised as one.
Delayed gratification trumps instant gratification.
Making a couple of hundred dollars one day is nothing compared to making some more each month consistently.
Instant gratification is shallow. It is easy to find but isn’t reliable.
Delayed is the result of audacious decisions and showing up every day.
I dream of making an empire one day and looking back in awe at its beauty.
The joy comes from the process, the empire is just a by-product.
Take risks but don’t be reckless
Now I don’t mean throw all your money on Ethereum and end up broke for a while.
Take intelligent risks — don’t gamble.
Going after something is dangerous That is what makes it special.
But its price is different. Discomfort.
Love it!
Go through the uncomfortable process with a smile on your face. Know how far you could reach, because if you can imagine it, you can do it!
If such risks don’t pay off they teach you something.
Imagine if living a normal boring life doesn’t pay off. Because that can happen.
You can fail at something you don’t like. Might as well try something you do.
“Don’t invest in this, it is too risky”
If you think investing is risky wait till you get the tab for not investing
Takeaway
We all have 60,000 thoughts a day. We all have countless ideas. Ideas that in the span of that moment, feel superior.
If you take anything away from this article take these 4 words away.
‘Give it a go’
That is what it is all about.
Take a chance, roll the dice.
What if it doesn’t work out? All risks have a teachable lesson.
It makes you wiser.
If you are too cautious, you still have a teachable takeaway, you just usually get it too late.
Starting your dream business is risky.
Makes it even more enthralling!
It allows you to envision and every day get close to living your dream life.
What if you lose all your money? You could get a job then and try again.
Risks are gold mines!
The risk of falling down is what keeps the birds flying right?
Risks give us a reason to live. A direction to move towards. A purpose.
What is life without purpose?
Cautious people never fly because they are afraid to fall.
Reckless people never stay flying because they keep falling. But they learn what not to do. They make a better teacher.
They put you outside your comfort zone, in an area, you can thrive.
Anyone is a genius amongst toddlers. Comfort creates a false reality.
If you are the smartest guy in the room, you are in the wrong room
Is an adventure not better than security?
Everyone is writing a book as they live. Make sure your book is worth reading. Have a story to tell. When you die, make sure your book was a bestseller.
Be grateful. Be risky. Dream.
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