Yesterday I got home from a run. I lied on the cool tile floor in a pool of sweat until recovered enough to drink some water and have a snack. I reached into the fridge for some fruit, and it seemed someone had cut up a cantaloupe. I bit into a piece and it tasted like watermelon. I’m home before medical school starts, so I yelled,”Mom, this cantaloupe tastes weird!” She replied from another room, “It’s watermelon.” Apparently the market had had a watermelon sale, and they all had the short tag “Try me: I’m sweet and I’m yellow.” I wasn’t impressed by the marketing slogan, but it got me thinking about risk. If I had read the tag, I would have found a grocery store worker and pressed him or her to point me in the direction of some regular, red watermelon. The yellow crimson watermelon, however, turned out to be sweeter and juicier than any watermelon I’ve ever eaten. Admittedly, trying the anomaly could have gone the other way. Maybe yellow watermelon could have tasted like brussel sprouts, and it definitely would not have made the perfect post-run glucose replacement.
This was a blaring example that my conservative nature is not only contrary to my beliefs, but detrimental to my happiness. So risk it! Take small risks all the time. Try new foods, travel, challenge yourself mentally and physically. In keeping with the previous analogy, taking small risks is precisely how you find ways to make your life a little more profitable. Sometimes you should take huge risks though. The old adage ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ could not be more relevant. If you want huge profits, you are going to have to take bigger risks. In entrepreneurship and VC, the model is fail early, fail fast, and expect to fail often. In these startup business situations failures refine your ability to succeed (to choose a profitable venture). Additionally, in life, defeat often augments the pleasure of eventual triumph. “Without the bitter, the sweet just ain’t as sweet.” — Vanilla Sky.
It’s not always easy or simple to do cost-benefit analysis on potential life risks and keep a cool head. It’s effortless to take the safe path, but you live once and your profit, your happiness, is paramount. Isn’t that worth a little effort. And what you have to lose in these risks is far less than what you have to gain? If you try ten fruits you don’t like, and you find one you do…then you probably spent ten minutes with a bad taste in your mouth…but you now have a lifetime with a new, healthy snack. If you quit the job you hate going to and start a donut shop or start to paint and it doesn’t work out, it’s pretty likely you can find a similar job later, or you could keep pushing to find what does work for you. But maybe in the mix, you find your true passion. Movies like “Meet Bill,” “American Beauty,” “Mighty Ducks,” “Harold and Maude,” and many others have the protagonists find fulfillment in unlikely places…in lives that completely contradict who they used to be. Are you checking out those places?
Remember, and this is a warning, there is a difference between spontaneous, impulsive risk and calculated risk. You don’t have to gamble with your life. At least not with house odds. If you are taking calculated risks, then the risk, in itself, will make the venture gainful, and your eventual return on investment will come out the way you want.
Starting yesterday, I’m making a concerted effort to not just take risks more frequently, but to take bigger ones, to step further out of my comfort zones than ever before. And in doing so, I’m fine-tuning my life philosophy. I’m starting a life business that is not only profitable, but that I’m proud of. Risking parts of my identity is highlighting things I want to change, emphasizing my more strongly held beliefs, and aiding my ultimate goal of figuring out just who I want to be, so that I can become the best version of that person.
What have you risked today? This year? In your life?
*Watermelon is actually a vegetable. I, for one, had no idea.