“The thing that’s important in entrepreneurship: you just have to be right once.”
Naval Ravikant
Certain activities in life are asymmetric. This is when the downsides of doing something are minuscule compared to the potential rewards. Our job is to identify these asymmetries, especially the ones that offer big rewards that change your life for the better. As Naval Ravikant once wrote, entrepreneurship is one such example. Another example is when you’re single and meet potential romantic partners. You never know who you’ll spend the rest of your life with. If meeting that person demands five minutes of discomfort, you should do it.
Once you understand the idea of asymmetry, it starts popping up everywhere. Developing healthy habits, changing career paths, developing unconventional skills, doing creative work, performing random acts of kindness, and spending time with your children are examples of asymmetries. Some of those things aren’t time-consuming, but we often postpone them indefinitely because we’re focusing on small distractions. So the goal isn’t to identify asymmetries but to devote ourselves to them. No one in their right mind would prefer to waste time on an app instead of listening to their child, but if we’re not careful, this could become a habit on its own. Remember, you can’t reap the immense rewards if you don’t take the small risk in the first place.
There’s another problem that no one mentions when discussing asymmetries. We are wired to conform, so we are paralyzed by ideas that aren’t popular among our peers. Asking someone out, starting a company, or leaving law school to pursue a music career aren’t always popular ideas. Someone could go as far as to say they are contrarian. Think about it for a minute, though. Had Steve Jobs been wrong about a future where everyone carried phones in their pocket, he’d still be a respected entrepreneur. The fact that he was contrarian (and right) made him one of the best innovators of our time. Don’t let other people dictate how you live your life, otherwise, it might become a lifelong regret.
Of course, there are moments when others should encourage us to take risks. The younger you are, the more shots you should take because worst case scenario, you just lose some time. Luckily, you have plenty of that when you’re young. But even when you’re older, identifying asymmetries is important. You can be in your forties and launching a YouTube channel can change your life. Certain paths (like entrepreneurship or socializing) develop skills that will be useful in whatever career you pursue. I started this article with a Naval Ravikant quote, so let’s end with another: “I would rather be a failed entrepreneur than someone who never tried. Because even a failed entrepreneur has the skill set to make it on their own.”