what if I told you that when you
graduated college you had to give up
your cell phone couldn’t use the
internet and had to move to a foreign
country where you had no family or
friends and didn’t speak the language
and on top of it you had to live like
this for the next twenty to thirty years
of your life
that means no Facebook no Instagram no
snapchat and like a lot of us have been
doing in this audience no texting is
there anything you’ve done in your life
to date or could ever imagine doing that
would be as scary as this
I’ll bet for most of us including me it
pretty much sounds like the most
terrifying thing I could ever imagine
it’s something that I can’t even start
to begin to think about what it would
take to go on an adventure like that and
what’s interesting about this it’s not
an imaginary world it’s real it’s anyone
it’s what anyone that immigrated to this
country in the 1970s or before actually
went through and the funniest part of
all that is that those same people
probably couldn’t imagine doing that
today they probably feel like that life
that they lived at that time was a dream
life and if their kids 18 or 22 or older
told them hey mom
hey Dad I’m gonna go get rid of my phone
I’m going to throw it in the trash I’m
not going to use the Internet you have
no way of contacting me and I’m going to
move to XYZ place they told their
parents that which their parents did I
think their parents would lock them in
their room you know they’d say no way
there’s no chance it’s too risky so what
I want to contend today is that there’s
no such thing as risk-taking for the
majority of people who will ever hear
this talk the idea of something feeling
risky is really just based on two
variables one simply perception the
second is the feeling of having
something to lose
I’m here to tell you that your
perception doesn’t always paint the
whole picture almost everyone in this
room is lucky like you went to the gas
station bought a lottery ticket and the
won and won the Powerball lucky and when
you realize this your whole world will
open up and the possibilities that you
could never imagine
nothing is risky nothing is not risky
everything just is and it’s our
perception our perception of a
particular circumstance that makes us
believe whether something is risky or
not and for those of us in this world
that have an opportunity to do something
that we are truly passionate about that
we owe it to ourselves to take action
because we realize we rarely realize how
lucky that that it is we are to even
have the opportunity in our life to take
something that is perceived as a risk
think about it and this is sort of weird
so I’m gonna warn you guess for most of
us cutting somebody open would be risky
it’d be scary super weird that I even
brought that up right but there’s
probably doctors in this room my
brother’s a surgeon literally his
favorite thing in the world to do is to
cut people open cut people open and fix
them
and to me like that sounds insane I
couldn’t even I can’t even think about
it what about something else buying a
plane ticket to London many of you in
this room have probably traveled to
another country some maybe heaven that
doesn’t seem too risky to most people
but what if you’ve never travelled what
if you have a fear of flying or a fear
of heights what if you don’t speak
English something as simple as buying a
plane ticket to fly to London could seem
like the riskiest thing in the world to
you at that moment there are endless
examples like this skydiving
skateboarding you know quitting a job
asking somebody out on a date starting
an academy for for people to code like
we just heard the takeaway that isn’t
that it isn’t the event or action or
circumstance that’s inherently risky
it’s a particular person’s
interpretation of event action or
circumstance due to their unique life
experience up until that moment in time
that makes them perceive something as
risky even when literally the person
next to you might have a completely
different perception just think about
that for one moment your risk is maybe
your neighbors norm and vice versa
understanding this I’m going to let you
in on a little secret most people
usually think that the things that
they’ve never tried before are risky and
with every year the older we get
the more risky we believe that things
are that we’ve never tried but the only
thing that’s changing is your perception
of that particular event the actual risk
in question doesn’t change it’s a
distinct action that just is and the
worst part is because of this illogical
perspective very few of us ever try
something new at all ever take a risk at
all so for those of you that actually
chooses to take a risk in your life your
probability of success in that action
relative relative to everyone else in
the world actually goes up as the demand
for that particular action or taking
that risk goes down simply put even if
you think something is really risky it’s
always less risky than you think
picture this so there’s three options if
you do something there’s three options
of that that could happen one life gets
better two life stays the same and three
it gets worse so literally you have a
66% chance of either being the same or
getting better the problem is is that
everyone imagines that there’s a hundred
percent chance it’s going to get worse
and that’s not the case so how you
internalize this fact can dictate the
entire arc of your life it can trap you
or can free you but it’s not just our
misguided perception that leads us to
believe certain things are riskier than
others the feeling of risks also comes
from the feeling of having something to
lose the opportunity cost of life I was
trapped until 2008 a very important year
in my life not trapped in the sense that
something wrong was something went wrong
with my life I actually had a really
nice life I had great friends at family
I had done some things but trapped
because I’d pretty much chosen to live
my entire life up until that moment to
avoid perceived risks because of this
I’d never made a decision for myself
independent of what I thought others
wanted me to do or what I thought would
would make me seem successful in other
people’s eyes I thought I had something
to lose always when in reality I only
had everything to gain I just didn’t
realize it yet by 2008 I had attended a
great University
not pretty unfortunately but I’m from
here
majored in economics worked in
investment banking and private equity
like you heard I was financially
independent for the first time in my
life and living in a city I loved and
traveling and doing all these great
things but every decision I had made to
get to that point was because I thought
it was what I was supposed to do
literally in college I didn’t even know
what Investment Banking was but I wasn’t
premed and I wasn’t going to be a lawyer
I wasn’t an engineer a liberal arts
degree and that’s literally what I
thought I could do I didn’t even know
what it was other friends were
interviewing and so I went after it so
this point in my life 2008 it’s July
August had a very important decision to
make
I had a promotion offer I don’t know why
but they gave me one
I could go to business school and I had
you know studied and taking the tests
and all this stuff and it’s what my
friends were doing it’s what my peer
group in the finance and the consulting
in the business world were doing it
would help cement my career in future it
was well respected and it would make my
mom really happy I’m sure and she’s in
the audience up there somewhere so I
hope that puts a smile in her face the
risky choice was to do something
different I wasn’t passionate about
finance and I’d always imagine starting
something on my own even though I
literally had no idea what that was and
and just as an aside that’s okay
so I ended up doing what anyone in that
situation would do I quit my job and I
bought a one-way plane ticket to
Argentina for the next two years I
travelled I ended up going to every
continent on in the world and over 30
countries I spent most of my savings or
for purposes this my risk shield but I
don’t think that could ever compare to
the experiences that I had I went to
some of the most amazing beautiful scary
and everything in-between places on
planet Earth
I met some of the most incredible people
that I’ve ever met in my life
and and those were people from all walks
of life whether that’s sub-saharan
Africa or you know Nepal or Southeast
Asia or somewhere in Europe and
everywhere in between
and these are people that I’m still
close to today and experiences and
relationships that I treasure and guess
what I’m alive I’m still here the world
didn’t end I was still standing my life
didn’t crumble out all from under me my
friends didn’t ditch me nobody said that
oh I’m never going to hire you for a job
ever again I was fine it was the first
time that I taken time to catch my
breath and not jump immediately from one
thing to the next and I really thought
about what I wanted in life I went from
being trapped to being free there’s one
specific moment in my travels where I
really gained clarity on this it’s one
of the most important experiences that
has happened in my life it was May April
or May of 2000 2009 and I had the
opportunity to go to the Himalayas where
I tracked for two or three weeks
normally people go in big groups I went
by myself and I hired this random guy
that you know I found through someone in
Kathmandu to take me in the mountains
which is probably it that’s weird and
stupid decision but he was good his name
is Prakash we sort of looked alike he’s
really nice guy and because I wasn’t in
a group and hanging out with the people
in that group I hung out with him so
instead of going to bed at night or
hanging out with the other Westerners
Prakash would take me to local Tibetan
and Nepali homes where we drank I feel
like that’s like the common thing to
bring people together we had rice
whiskey and rice wine and we tell
stories we’d make jokes we’d literally
be sitting in these tiny houses of
one-room around sort of a burning oven
so we got to know each other pretty well
and he spoke pretty good English because
this was his job is what he did and one
day you know we were walking trekking
again I think we’re on the descent now
and he said something to me that I’ll
never forget he said you’re really lucky
to be taking this trip and I was like
what do you mean lucky I defended myself
I said you know I I didn’t I didn’t have
a silver spoon I worked hard I saved up
and I can do whatever I want with the
money that I save you know III deserve
this I chose to do this trip he said now
you were lucky to be in a position to
save money which sort of pissed me off
also I said no what do you mean I said
you know yes you know I had certain
opportunities but you know my parents
and snot just my story it’s again the
story of many people that have traveled
long and far to improve their lives
didn’t come from a whole lot they worked
hard they saved money to give me and my
siblings a better life we’re not lucky I
told him I understand where you’re
coming from but that doesn’t mean that
I’m lucky in some way and he said no you
don’t understand you’re lucky to have
been born in the US and that crushed me
it hit me like a ton of bricks he wasn’t
saying that I wasn’t a hard worker he
wasn’t saying that my parents didn’t
struggle at some point in their life he
was simply saying that I was lucky and
he was right we were literally both the
same age 27 years old at the time I was
traveling for fun pretty unlucky right
and Prakash worked seven days a week in
the Himalayan mountains away from his
wife and two little children who lived
in Katmandu he literally never saw them
throughout the year so that he could
save enough money to send back home to
them and and I didn’t know this at the
time of course but by the way in the
major earthquake that happened a couple
of years back his house was completely
destroyed I realized at that moment the
most important thing that happens to us
in our lives is literally the single
thing we have no control over where
we’re born and who were born to if
you’re born in a country like the US a
developing country a developed country
you literally have infinitely more
opportunity than if you’re born and say
a slum of Kenya or Bangladesh etc I was
lucky and I am super lucky we’re super
lucky so if you look around the room
today I hope you realize that almost
every single one of us is luckier than
most
we’re educated we likely have a family
we have friends we have a support
structure we have more than 10 bucks in
our pocket on any given day which is
more than 70% of the Earth’s population
has today we have nothing to lose and
ironically if you actually have nothing
to lose if you actually have nothing
you also have nothing to lose and so
when you have nothing to lose you have
no risk to take and when you realize
there are no risks in life it frees you
to do anything and when you can do
anything you can literally change the
world
thank you
[Applause] [Music]