What all of these great conversations with close friends taught me is that it’s not failure that I’m afraid of–because deep down I think I believe that I’ll land on my feet–what I’m afraid of is discomfort. That doesn’t seem half bad and I realize how fortunate I am to be in such a situation. ![]() My worst case scenario is that my big vision doesn’t work out and I have to find a “real job” again. Friends that would happily forward my resume along to hiring managers. The type of friends that would let me crash on their couches (which I did several times during my nomadic year). In the event of utter failure, I am fortunate to have wonderfully supportive family and friends that would love me whether my project succeeded or failed. Worst comes to worst, you can always stay on our couch. You’ll never starve, and you’ll always have a place to sleep. Someone very close to me sent a link to this fantastic post by the Bonobos founder, Andy Dunn, titled The Risk Not Taken (absolutely worth the read), which eloquently conveys the same realization my friends help me understand: Fortunately, I have truly wonderful friends that believed in me at a point when I didn’t exactly believe in myself and their encouragement helped me realize the worst case scenario wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I’d led myself to believe. It seems overly dramatic and harsh to write it out, but at a point in time, these irrational thoughts seemed very rational to me (and I’d be surprised if I’m the only one that’s ever had thoughts like these). It was a running dialogue: it’s irresponsible to quit your job, it won’t work, you will fail and be judged, you’ll go broke, you’ll never find a new job, you’ll ruin your career, etc. And continued to tell myself I couldn’t quit, despite my growing unhappiness. I told myself that no rational person quits a great job to travel and write about strangers they meet. I have never worked on a project that made me feel as alive or fulfilled as 52 Cups and I slowly realize that I needed to jump back into the world of conversation and adventure.īut I kept stalling. Why? The simple truth is that while the job was an incredible learning experience, it wasn’t the right fit for me and the longer I worked the more apparent it became that I was avoiding doing the work that I truly loved. My comfortable and stable job at a fast-growing company with great team members and awesome benefits–a job that seems silly to leave. Here’s my confession: I’ve spent the bulk of the past three (or more) months thinking about quitting my job. You don’t have the right skills for this.Įveryone is going to judge you when this fails.Ĭourage is having the ability to see these thoughts are rooted in fear, not reality and faith is trusting that regardless of what happens, you’ll figure it out and land on your feet. You’re not smart enough to make this work. You’re going to lose all your money and go broke. We can have a list a mile long with solid reasons why we should take a risk, but never take it because of the dialogue of dangers running through our minds: ![]() The surface level answer is that risk taking requires a great deal of courage and a healthy dose of trust. You can find countless quotes that share the same core thought: take risks, have faith, or to be cliche, just do it. My simple interpretation: when you fully commit to a goal, opportunities emerge. Ralph Waldo Emerson had a similar quote: “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen”. This is a line in The Alchemist, the international best-seller written by Paulo Coelho, about a boy on a quest to Egypt after recurring dreams lead him to believe there is treasure there waiting. When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. This is the second in a three part series about why we love quotes but often ignore their advice.
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