the poison you need to avoid

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” 

— Henry David Thoreau.

This quote lives rent free in my head. 

It is so powerful because it speaks volumes about the condition of most people on the planet. 

There are things we want to do, but never get the chance to. The things that we do, we don’t fully enjoy. 

And yet we continue doing them with this quiet sense of optimism, that somehow things will get better. 

But the optimism really only exists out of compulsion. Because what other option do we have? 

Surely we can’t accept that our existence is a living hell, that would just make it worse to get through. 

So we continue to plough on. Oblivious to the potential outcomes and lives that exist outside our spheres of imagination. 

But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. 

Naval said “There are almost 7B people on this planet. Someday, I hope, there will be almost 7B companies.”

Although we are far from it, we’re also much closer to it than we’ve ever been. 

Society shows us just one path. I want to tell you there’s more. 

Maybe you already know that. Maybe you’re not sure if they’re right for you. 

“What if it doesn’t work?" 

“What If you crash and fail?”

There’s always just one way to find out.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating

I get this question all the time.

“Should I try to start something of my own or do an MBA first?”

The answer is in the question. Try. First. See what happens.

It is stupidly simple. 

• How do you find out if you can succeed as a musician

• How do you find out if you can make it as an entrepreneur?

• How do you find out if you can become a successful pastry chef?

By trying. By doing it. And seeing what happens.

And yet, most people never do it. 

They are averse to the possibility of doing things differently than what has been prescribed to them by society. 

This is called ‘Status Quo Bias’. 

'Status quo bias’ refers to people's preference for keeping things the way they currently are. Under status quo bias, people perceive change as a risk or a loss. Because of this, they try to maintain the current situation.

This leads to the birth of one of the worst poisons known to man. 

Regret. 

Ask anyone who’s lived long enough and they’ll tell you. Nobody ever regretted doing or trying something. It’s only the ‘not doing’ that leads to regret.

The only way to avoid it, is by taking a plunge.

If that still sounds overwhelming to you, here’s an excellent technique I picked up recently which will be immensely helpful. 

I’ve tried to implement it in my life and it has made things significantly better.

The worst case list:

I picked this up from a book I read recently - “The 4-hour workweek” by Tim Ferris.

He says before making a decision, you should list down the things that would happen if everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. A worst case list. Write it down in as much detail as you can. If all of that happens, where would that leave you? 

Bankrupt?

Without a job?

Out on the street?

Write it all down. 

And if that did happen, how much time would it take you to get back to your original condition/state?

What Tim says, and what I found to be the case as well, is that the worst case isn’t as bad as we think. 

It’s also temporary. It can often be reversed fairly quickly. 

So let’s say you want to take a 2 year hiatus from your job to pursue entrepreneurship, and you have enough runway/savings to do that, what’s the worst that could happen?

You mess up, blow through your runway, and fail miserably. You probably gained a ton in experiences and learnings but I’m discounting that for now. 

Now at the end of the two year period, you decide to go back to a job. It takes you anywhere between 1-6 months to get another job (maybe earlier because of your newfound experience and learnings). 

So your worst case is:

• All savings/runway finished

• 2 years of pure learnings ad experiences that can’t be replicated

• No regret or what-ifs later

And you can get your old life back in maybe 6 months max. 

Suddenly, this doesn’t seem that daunting anymore. 

And here’s the best part. What if you actually make it?

What if your business starts to do well, and it all falls into place?

You would escape the life that you hated, you get to do what you want, and most importantly, you avoid regret. 

If you start analysing all your decisions this way, things would become much easier. 

• List down the worst case

• See how long reversal would take in case it happens

• Re-evaluate the decision

What you need to do

There is immense potential in all of us. More than we can see. There are not many scenarios where we can’t do what we want. 

Especially in the world we live in today. The internet has removed any and all reservations from what’s possible. 

You can pretty much go out and make a living doing anything you want. (including selling feet pics lol).

(You can read my previous newsletter to know how to do this)

The requirements from your end are minimal. You need:

• a dream to work towards

• A plan to make it happen

• Courage to take the first step

The choice is upto you. Continue to live the life assigned to you, or build the life you’ve always wanted.

More often that not, the downsides to the latter are limited and the upsides are infinite. 

And yet paradoxically, most will steer clear of it. That’s precisely why Thoreau wrote the words at the start of the piece.

But if you decide to take a step in the right direction, I promise you, you will be part of a privileged few, who will be able to live life in it’s truest and purest form. 

Void of regrets. 

Thanks for reading!

— Khyatt