Too Many People Want Risk-Free Lives and Wonder Why They’re Miserable

In 1965, Frederick Smith was an undergraduate at Yale University and had an idea for a business.

Smith wrote a term paper illustrating his idea. In his paper, he explained how companies could deliver items faster if they changed their shipping strategies. The idea was brilliant, innovative, and well ahead of its time.

His professor didn’t get it and gave him a C.

The Yale teacher didn’t see how it could possibly work.

Smith didn’t listen. After two tours in Vietnam with the Marine Corps, he implemented his idea. Smith bought a controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales in 1971, and operations began in 1973.

Frederick Smith later named the company Federal Express or “FED-EX,” for short.

Had Smith listened to his professor (like so many do), he wouldn’t be worth the $5.6 billion he is today.

Let’s explore how taking risks pays off.

It’s All a Gamble

Here’s something to remember: Starting a business doesn’t mean all your problems and worries disappear overnight.

If anything, they increase. After building multiple companies making millions of dollars, I’m speaking from personal experience.

Frederick Smith didn’t start FED-EX and instantly become a billionaire. No way, dummy.

Actually, he nearly went out of business.

At one point, Smith had to think outside the box to keep the company afloat. So, he applied for every business loan he could.

After every bank he went to denied his loan requests, he took the company’s last $5,000 to Las Vegas and won $27,000 gambling on Blackjack to pay the company’s $24,000 fuel bill. This decision ultimately saved his business.

The point here is not to go gambling, hoping to make money or save your business. That’s not what I’m saying.

The main idea here is to know you’re gambling already, whether you realize it or not. It’s not with money, currently. It’s with your time and opportunity.

You could take the risk of pursuing what you want and the life you desire. Or, you could play it “safe.”

How many people choose to play it safe in life? They don’t pursue their dreams or their ultimate calling. They often take “safer” career options like teaching or accounting.

What happens? They get fired for a younger, less expensive replacement.

Does that sound safe?

Billions of people illustrate how you can “play it safe” and still fail, so you might as well go for what you want anyway.

Money Is a Big Area Where People Don’t Take Risks

And, funny enough, this is exactly where the biggest payoff is: Investing your money.

We’ve all heard the saying, “You’ve gotta spend money to make money.”

Yet, while everyone has heard and knows that saying, very few do it.

If you want to make money in the stock market, you must face the risk.
If you want new clients for your business, you need to advertise—more risk.
If you want to learn new skills, you have to buy education. That’s risk!

The yearly tuition for Harvard is currently $57,261. That’s only for tuition and excludes books, room and board, and all the other bells and whistles. The grand total is $83,538.

And you pay to get in before getting the result of the education. People enroll at Harvard University and don’t ask to pay at the end of their 4-year degree. Why? Because the risk is on you.

Harvard can do their best to educate you, but if you don’t show up and smoke weed out the back of the library daily, nothing they say will matter.

That’s a massive risk. However, if you apply yourself and give your all, you increase the likelihood of success.

Frederick Smith went to Yale, giving him the idea for FED-EX. He also learned how to not listen to others and follow his gut. Both were risks. Both paid off.

You will never fulfill your potential if you don’t take risks. And you 100% won’t become successful if you want a risk-free life.

Living itself is a risk. And yet, you still get out of bed each day.

Here’s Where Risk-Free Living Leads

Our brains are naturally negative.

They’ve evolved to identify risk as a possible threat to our survival.

However, when we listen to our fear and avoid risks, we know it. Once the fear dissipates, we feel it. We feel when we’re not giving our all or like we’re leaving our potential on the sidelines. We just feel off.

If we continue on this path, it will lead to depression. I’m speaking from personal experience here.

I had the same four jobs for two years. My days were identical, and it sucked.

Not taking risks is boring. Knowing exactly what will happen day in and day out robs any excitement from life. There are no deviances, no surprises. There are no rejections or failures, so there’s no growth. It makes you numb to everything.

Here are two things to remember that you can apply:

Taking risks leads to the best learning.

Yes, even if you fail. 

Sign up for that course, take that class, and go ask that girl out. Sure, it may not work out, but you’ll learn more from the “failure” than from not doing anything.

The pain from calculated risks can and will transform your life for the better. You’ll learn more, grow faster, and develop a courage you never knew existed if you stayed comfortable.

Unless you feel the pain, it won’t stick to your brain.

Taking risks forces you to have skin in the game.

I like risks that involve money. It excites me. Because I know if it works, I get more money.

Putting money behind something puts skin in the game. It gives me financial accountability.

If someone gives me a free ticket to a Miami Heat game or a $2000 Tony Robbins seminar, I won’t value it as much as if I paid that cash out of my own wallet.

The financial “pain” forces me to show up early, pay attention, listen, and enjoy the experience more. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still take the free tickets! But I value it more when my money is behind it.

No Risk = No Reward

Imagine if Frederick Smith listened to his professor at Yale.

Do you think he’d be happy?

Do you think he’d feel fulfilled?

Do you think he’d be a billionaire?

Probably not.

Because he took the risk, he put himself in a position to reap the rewards–$5.6 billion in rewards, actually.

But here’s what you have to remember: 

Taking a risk doesn’t guarantee success or the achievement of your goals. And taking no risk ensures your goals will never happen.

Remember, money didn’t fall from the sky when Frederick Smith launched his business. In fact, it dwindled. 

However, he persevered. He doubled down on risk and had to do so many, many times.

Smith had years of failure before he nearly bet the company away at a blackjack table. He was willing to risk it all to win. And in this scenario, he won it all.

Ask yourself this question:

Are you willing to bet it all?

Once again, I don’t mean going to Vegas and gambling like a desperate chump. 

I mean, are you willing to bet on yourself and your work ethic? Are you willing to go 100%--all in–on you and your goals?

If you are, then you have a shot. 

As long as you stick it out and outlast tough times and the competition, you increase the odds of getting the rewards.

The BMM Takeaway

Business is a risk.

There are no guarantees it’ll work. The numbers aren’t in your favor. 80% of businesses fail. That’s a staggering statistic with a litany of unknown risks involved.

But you have to ask yourself, what’s the alternative?

It’s succumbing to a life of mediocrity with the potential of wondering, “What if?”

If all you do is avoid risk, unsubscribe from this newsletter right now. I don’t want you here, and I don’t want to know you.

But if you’re ready to summon the courage to overcome your fear and face the risk, then you’ll have a bright future. 

Yes, you’re going to fail and fail a lot. But you’ll win in the end because to get back up after each failure is what it takes to win. 

And it’s not the millions of dollars that you’ll make that’ll make you happy. While that helps and feels amazing, it’s not the money that’ll bring you joy.

It’ll be you looking back on the fact that you faced the risk and went after your goals like a champion–like Frederick Smith did.

That’s a life to be proud of.