Psychologists have known for years that people judge risk based on a sophisticated balance of emotion and deduction. Often the former trumps the latter.
This is a quote that I read in an online article that I believe is fairly relevant to an epiphany I had at a national conference this past semester in Philadelphia hosted by the Society of Asian Scientists & Engineers (SASE). It was a tremendous experience as I formed invaluable connections, attended workshops by industry experts, met Nina Davuluri (Miss America 2014), and explored Philadelphia with close friends.
One speaker that particularly stood out to me, however, was Tom Shieh, a best-selling author and entrepreneur. Knowing that pursuing the entrepreneurial path is daunting to most of us college students, he polled the room for reasons as to why we may not want to become entrepreneurs. Common responses included: "I may be too shy," "I may not be creative enough," and "I may fail to make enough money."
After probing his audience, he gently smiled—as if we were children failing to see the big picture—and asked, "You know there's also a risk to not becoming an entrepreneur, right?" We grinned and looked at each other, puzzled. He then posited, "You run the risk of living a mediocre life and never fulfilling your deepest desires."
Woah, lightnings bolts went off in my head. While his statement is certainly subjective, it does reveal an interesting fact about human psychology: we often fail to analyze both sides to what is perceived to be a risky decision. Even if we consciously know that sacrificing what we have is helpful to us in the long run, our fear for leaving our comfort zone can be so crippling that we irrationally choose the comfortable decision rather than the beneficial one. Looking back at decisions I've made, I can say quite honestly that I too have fallen into this trap too many times and will try my best to prevent it from happening any further.
I challenge you to flip your mindset: you are risking your life's work, your life's purpose, and your biggest dreams, all by staying within your comfort zone. Fear of risk is often irrational and yet its tragic consequences know no bounds: many ground-breaking ideas are never discovered and dreams are destroyed because of it.
That being said, suppose you do decide to take a risk and you "fail." Then, it is most likely that the experience gained through your failure will have outweighed the costs of trying. After all, knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do. Risk is an illusion that encourages complacency which—it should be pointed out—is actually worse than failure, because at least failure has lessons to offer.
Life is far too short to not give it a try.