Is it scary, or is it dangerous?
Recently, Iāve been binge-listening to the back catalogue of How I Built This with Guy Raz.
And something I heard in the episode with Jim Koch, founder of the Sam Adams beer, stopped me in my tracks.
Jim has a BA, JD, and MBA from Harvard University.
In 1984, he had been working at the prestigious management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group for six years.
And then one day, he decided to quit and found a brewing company.
Guy Raz asked him how he could leave such a cushy, prestigious job to chase this crazy idea.
And Jim repliedā
I left it because staying there was very risky.
Leaving it was not risky.
Itās the difference in life between things that are scary and things that are dangerous.
There are plenty of things that are scary but not dangerous.
And there are things that are dangerous but not scary. And those are the things that get you.
I can give you a climbing analogy from Outward Bound.
One of the things we taught people to do was rappel off a cliff. Itās a very scary thing to do. But youāre also held by a belay rope, and that rope will hold a car.
So walking off the cliff backwards is scary but not dangerous.
Walking across a 35 degree angle snowfield on a beautiful, late May afternoon with a bright blue sky ā itās not scary at all.
But itās very dangerous because snow is melting, eventually itās going to find a layer of ice, water will lubricate that, and you have an avalanche.
That is dangerous but not scary.
And in my situation, staying at BCG was dangerous but not scary.
The danger there, the risk of it, was continuing to do something that didnāt make me happy and getting to 65ā¦
And looking back and going, āOh my god, I wasted my life.ā
That is risk. That is danger.
So as life pummels you with little stressors todayā¦
I want you to ask yourself:
Is this scary, or is this dangerous?
Iāll bet you anything that 99% of what is stressing you out IS scaryā¦
But not dangerous at all.
And then I want you to look around and ask yourself:
Where are the things that are dangerousā¦but not scary at all?
The things that are slowly but surely taking my life NOT in the direction I want it to goā¦
ā¦but donāt set off any alarm bells on a day-to-day basis?
Doing what youāve always doneā¦
Or doing what all your friends are doingā¦
Or doing the thing that is easy to explain and āmakes senseā to everyone elseā¦
All those things are very, very UN-scaryā¦
ā¦but they can end up being very, very dangerousā¦
If they lead you to live a life youāll regret at the end.
So take a moment to check in with yourself.
Is your life heading in the direction you want it to go?
Is 90-year-old you going to be happy with you, or furious at you?
You know, in your bones, the answers to those questions.
And if you donāt like the answersā¦
Come talk to me.
Book a free coaching consult to talk me about working together one-on-one.
Or join the waitlist for my course & coaching program, opening shortly :)
What my clients have to sayā¦
āSome weeks, I have a very specific thing that is troubling me, and I'm excited to talk about it.
And there are other times where I came in and I didn't quite know what I wanted to talk about.
And those were the sessions where Pooja was able to help me unpack something that I didn't even know was there.
It surprised me that I didn't have to do all the work in advance to come in with the agenda of what I needed to talk about.
And that there are nuggets and insights to get, no matter how clearly I even see the problem coming in.ā
āClient | Early-Stage Tech Startup Director turned Design Consultant
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