{"id":2408,"date":"2012-01-23T10:26:57","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T17:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=2408"},"modified":"2018-04-04T02:09:36","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T09:09:36","slug":"young-take-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/23\/young-take-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"If You’re Young, Do Harder, Riskier Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

I get a lot of email. Most is encouraging, but now and then I get an email from a reader irate that one of my articles didn\u2019t speak to them personally, so they write me a scathing critique.<\/p>\n

A common template goes something like, \u201cYou think it\u2019s easy to do _____. Just wait until you have kids, tons of debt and a mortgage bub.\u201d The idea being that I\u2019m somehow at fault for not giving them personalized advice because they had made poor life decisions.<\/p>\n

But it does bring up a good point: if you\u2019re young, it is easier to do harder and riskier things. If you\u2019re smart, you take advantage of that.<\/p>\n

Being Young and Taking Risks<\/h2>\n

When I say risks, I\u2019m talking about the long-shot, high-reward, low-cost kind: starting a business, living in a different country or building something interesting.<\/p>\n

Of course, you don\u2019t need to be young to do any of these things. On the contrary, risky, difficult things would seem more feasible as you gain more experience and resources.<\/p>\n

But the more you have, the harder it is to justify giving it up. There\u2019s a lower opportunity cost to invest hundreds of hours in a speculative project when you\u2019re earning $10 per hour than $100. Spending a year living abroad is harder if you need to convince a spouse or kids to come along for the ride.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be young to take on difficult, risky things. I know people twice my age who are more adventurous than I am. But the life trajectory people take usually makes it harder to do.<\/p>\n

Fail When It\u2019s Easy To Fail<\/h2>\n

I started thinking through this idea when I was contemplating starting my MIT Challenge<\/a>. On the one hand, my business was becoming more consistent. One year\u2019s worth of work improving my courses and distribution would have been tens of thousands of dollars in extra income.<\/p>\n

Instead I chose to spend a year doing something I thought was interesting and had a possibility of sharing the passion I have for learning and self-education with a larger audience.<\/p>\n

The benefits aren\u2019t purely emotional. If the challenge were to be successful, it could help build better credibility for my methods and attract new customers. Even if I were being strictly motivated by money, it wouldn\u2019t necessarily be a bad idea, just a riskier one.<\/p>\n

I could take on this project because I could afford to fail at it. My lifestyle is still inexpensive, so even if I didn\u2019t have my business, a year\u2019s worth of bills would have been less than a year in a university. I had no outstanding commitments and no dependents.<\/p>\n

Taking on risks isn\u2019t just about being bold, it\u2019s about being able to handle the possibility of failure. If you can\u2019t afford to fail, you can\u2019t afford to try, so fail while failing is still cheap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get a lot of email. Most is encouraging, but now and then I get an email from a reader irate that one of my articles didn\u2019t speak to them personally, so they write me a scathing critique. A common template goes something like, \u201cYou think it\u2019s easy to do _____. Just wait until you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,681,15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-discipline","7":"category-nc-mindset","8":"category-communication","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIf You're Young, Do Harder, Riskier Things - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/23\/young-take-risks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If You're Young, Do Harder, Riskier Things - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I get a lot of email. Most is encouraging, but now and then I get an email from a reader irate that one of my articles didn\u2019t speak to them personally, so they write me a scathing critique. A common template goes something like, \u201cYou think it\u2019s easy to do _____. 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