A post by Lee Roy on LinkedIn motivated me to take a certain risk, and since it partially worked out I figured I should take way more risks. In his post Lee Roy writes:
#
- People don’t realize that failure is not that bad
- People don’t realize how life-changing success can be.
This is a lesson you can only ever learn by actually swinging at something and realizing either: you failed and it wasn’t that bad OR you succeeded and it was life-changing. You need to find your first win. All it takes is to build something and share it with the world before you start the series of life events that will end up with you being 100 times more ambitious, risk-taking, and hardworking. Life is all about learning the correct lessons. The most important lesson you will ever learn is that the downside of risk is very low and the upside of risk is extremely high. Force yourself to learn this lesson as quickly as possible.
Another mention of risk-taking came up when I looked at what MIT Admissions looks for in applicants, and one of the factors is again Risk taking:
#
The most creative and successful people—and MIT is loaded with them—know that risk-taking can lead to failure as often as it can lead to success. MIT students take all kinds of thoughtful risks, whether that’s registering for a challenging lab class, starting a company, or joining a club they’ve never tried before. Even when they fail, there are structural supports to catch them, and they learn resilience. We want to admit applicants who are not only planning to succeed but who are also not afraid to fail—and who know how to build a support system to keep them afloat during tough times.
So starting today I’ll keep a list where I’ll record all risks that I’ve taken, what my view was before I did anything, and what came out of it in the end. The list will stay personal for now, but I think after some time I’ll publish it here on the website )