We will all be dead, sooner or later.

Fear is killing you. What are you afraid of?

People often forget everything in life is a risk, including staying alive. Only when we are dead, we are risk-free. If we are alive, remember that we are at the risk of dying, some day or the other: this decade or the next. We cannot be young forever. We have to start accepting it.

If you choose a career, you are taking a risk. Becoming a doctor is risky. Becoming an engineer is risky. Becoming anything is risky.

If you pursue civil services, you are taking the risk of not being in the top 0.1% and wasting years on learning something that has no use in the real world in terms of the mastery to create goods and services that other people want.

If you are marrying someone, you are taking a risk. You are having the risk of the spouse turning out to be a bad apple. The spouse could leave you. If you have kids, you are taking even more risk.

The kid could become sick and impact you emotionally. Detail your relationship and your career. If you have a kid and you go through a divorce, that’s also a risk. It will waste years of your life.

So, you must accept that you cannot be at zero risk in any aspect of life. Only when you are dead do you have zero risk.

When you are dead, the only risk that you have is that you are born again. But that’s a topic for another day.

When you are alive, becoming dead is the ultimate risk. The risk factor that you will die is less when you are young, but even for the wealthiest person in the world, the fact that your risk will exponentially increase in the last few decades of your life is a fact that you have to come to terms with sooner or later.

In this short life, people are stupid to look for “no risk” avenues like:

• Getting a government job

• Following society’s expectations and tradition

• Putting money in fixed deposit

They are so afraid of the downside risk that they reduce their risk tolerance so much - and that’s the standard “Janta,” the usual crowd frantically trying to fit in. Because of the sheer number of people expecting no-risk avenues to materialize, it becomes risky, and the other way is less dangerous.

A seed is protected. It’s inside a hard case. But if the seed wants to be safe, it can never become a flower.

A flower is at the risk of getting blown away by the wind, an idiot plucking it, or eaten by animals. But a seed can’t remain a seed all the time afraid of becoming a flower.

Growth is inevitable, and with growth risk is inevitable. If you accept that sooner or later, you will die. Risk is irrelevant, You will cease to exist. It’s just a matter of time.

You think it’s risky because you are afraid. Fear leads you to the dark side.

Be bold, do things like:

• Start a business, don’t do a job

• Stay single until 35, live alone

• Put money in Bitcoin instead of a fixed deposit

This is how people’s minds work in career, relationships and wealth:

When it comes to career:

• “What if I start a business and, after 5 years, I have no savings and have to start all over again?” They don’t want this risk, so they pay a price - the price of mediocrity, like getting a boring job.

• A tedious job is the price to pay for not having to start from scratch after 5 years, but also, it is the price for the opportunity cost. You give up on the dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

• What if you actually succeed? What if life is much more exciting? I would rather take this possibility than the certainty of a boring job. So, what do I have to start from scratch again? Yes, there is a risk. But it’s not like I will die of hunger. So what? My friends might be making more money than me. I might feel like a failure, so what? I can go through this - for the possibility of success. You get what you pay for. You get what you are ready to pay for.

When it comes to relationships:

• “What if I don’t marry this girl right away? (Or boy). What if I remain single for the rest of my life? What if I regret not marrying her and kick myself for walking away?”

• But not committing instantly is the price for the possibility - what if you get someone better? Someone more compatible. Someone more disciplined and successful and beautiful. Not just visually beautiful but from the soul - in terms of the purity of the heart?

• Yes, there is a risk you can be single forever (but that’s a perceived imagined risk). If you are ready for that, then you have a possibility that you will get someone better by keeping your options open. Are you ready to pay the price? The price of uncertainty. The only way to deal with uncertainty is to be ready to pay the price. The chances that you will pay the price are less.

So spin that wheel. Gamble a bit with life. Everything is a gamble anyway. The whole world is a gamble.

When it comes to savings:

• “What if I invest in Bitcoin and lose all the money? What will happen? Will I come to the streets? I can’t deal with that uncertainty, so I will not take the risk.”

• However, the risk is reduced when you learn more about something. What if you don’t invest in Bitcoin, which goes 100x from here? Wouldn’t that cause a lot of regret? In that case, can you put 10% of your net worth in Bitcoin as regret insurance?

There are risks everywhere, and you can relatively reduce the risk by gaining more knowledge and experience.

Considering that you can’t be at zero risk anyway, not for long, why can’t you increase your risk tolerance by mentally preparing yourself for facing the worst-case scenario?

The worst case scenarios are scary only in our imagination. If we actually end up facing that situation, you will see that it is not that bad.

Humans are extremely resilient creatures. We have been foragers and moved from place to place, barely staying alive.

Don’t put your ancestors to shame but asking for so much certainty. That certainty that you have in your mind is a mirage anyway.

Live courageously.

Be ready to lose everything - you will get everything.

Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju