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Risk and Uncertainty

Lessons about mistakes, failure, uncertainty, the unknown, rejection, embarrassment, risk, and fate.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.

— Dwight L. Moody

Life’s not supposed to be easy. That’s why it feels so fucking good.

— AWOLNATION, Jump On My Shoulders

If life always went according to plan, you might as well plan your death and go die.

We all love to take responsibility for success and happiness. Hell, we often fight over who gets to be responsible for success and happiness. But taking responsibility for our problems is far more important, because that's where the real learning comes from. That's where the real-life improvement comes from. To simply blame others is only to hurt yourself.

— Mark Manson

“I might not stay here all that long,” my wife said, somewhat reluctant. “Everyone might go to the moon,” I said.

— Haruki Murakami, Killing Commendatore

In this real world of ours, after all, nothing remains the same forever.

— Haruki Murakami, Killing Commendatore

Every crisis represents not only danger but also opportunity. But as long as you deny them, as long as you try to escape from them or wish that things were different, the window of opportunity does not open up.

— Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

If you don’t feel like an imposter, you’re not working hard enough.

— Seth Godin

If you can’t handle the risk of embarrassment, rejection, and failure, you need to learn how, and studies suggest that is indeed a learnable skill.

— Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Many people become so obsessed with being ”right” about their life that they never end up actually living it.

— Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

The more you embrace being uncertain and not knowing, the more comfortable you will feel in knowing what you don’t know.

— Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

Sometimes you just gotta make the decision and jump.

What’s the worst that could happen?

— Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.

— Frank Wilczek

The mind always adheres to the known. The unknown is dangerous because it has no control over it.

— Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Curiosity always involves risk. You can’t satisfy your curiosity without accepting some risk. Curiosity didn’t just kill the cat.

— Haruki Murakami, Killing Commendatore

Only those who sleep make no mistakes.

— Ingvar Kamprad