The Paradox of Playing It Safe: Why Inaction Is Riskier Than Failure

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Mortality is the great equalizer—and realizing this simple truth can transform how we approach life's challenges and opportunities. 

Have you ever found yourself paralyzed by fear when considering a new venture? Whether it's investing in real estate, applying to flight school, or starting a YouTube channel, many of us get trapped in endless "what if" scenarios. We worry about failure, judgment, or disappointment until we've talked ourselves out of even trying. But there's something profoundly liberating about acknowledging our finite time: nobody survives this experience.

This realization flips traditional risk assessment on its head. The greatest danger isn't in taking action and potentially failing—it's in taking no action at all. When we truly internalize that our time is limited, the temporary discomfort of trying something new pales in comparison to the permanent regret of wondering what might have been. As a military flight instructor, I've seen countless people express interest in pursuing their dreams but remain frozen by fear, unable to take those first crucial steps.

What would you do differently if you embraced the perspective that the risk of inaction outweighs the risk of failure? How might your approach to your goals change? I hope this message reaches someone who needs it and provides the gentle push to move toward whatever matters to you. After all, we're all headed to the same destination—the only meaningful difference is what we choose to do along the journey. Take that first step. The clock is ticking for all of us, so you might as well make your limited time count.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
I'm going to die, you're going to die.
Anybody that ever views thisvideo is going to die.
And the weirdest way, I findthat empowering and it's just
now kind of struck me.
I just made a video about whatI would do if I need to buy a
rental property in 2025 withhaving no experience in $5,000.

(00:20):
That was the premise, and thenI thought to myself how many
people would potentially watchthat and take no action because
of fear of what would thisperson think of me?
What happens if it doesn't gowell?
What if?
What if, what if?
And they don't take any action.
And I know a lot of thosepeople.
I talk to a lot of those people.
I really enjoy thoseconversations trying to get them
to take action.

(00:40):
But there's so many people thatare so afraid of what will
happen that they don't doanything at all.
And to me, I've just started tothink of it, as nobody survives
this, and nobody that you knowsurvived, like nobody within
your sphere of influence.
Whatever that, however big thatmay be, is going to survive

(01:00):
this experience.
So the risk of not takingaction is greater than the risk
of taking action, in my opinion,and I know it's easier said
than done and it's a scary worldout there.
But it's something that I'vebeen thinking about a lot,
because I think the things I'mtalking about with the real
estate stuff or at large, arethings that you could learn in
five minutes or 10 minutes onGoogle searches or chat, gpt or

(01:22):
maybe a YouTube video.
But there's this inherent thingin some people or a lot of
people, really, everybody whichprohibits them from actually
taking the steps necessary topush closer to their goals
because they're so afraid.
I see this a lot with peoplethat want to go to military
flight school.
As an instructor in the unit,I've been around a little bit

(01:43):
now.
People come to me and askquestions about what would it be
like to go to flight school?
How can I get there, this andthat.
But there's a lot of peoplethat don't even take that first
step to go, do the first couplethings necessary to get there,
and it's not because they don'twant to do it, but it's because
they're so afraid of takingthose steps.
And what would happen if theyfail?
And what would happen if itdoesn't go well, and what would
happen if their family doesn'tsupport it, and the list goes on

(02:06):
and on.
But at the end of the day and Itell them this, I tell this to
people in my own circleliterally nobody survives this,
and I try to remember thismyself too, with varying degrees
of success.
So the risk of not doinganything is so much greater than
actually doing something,because at the end of the day,
it all kind of doesn't matteranyways.

(02:27):
So you might as well take thosechances.
You might as well try that newjob or go to that, go to back to
school or start a YouTubechannel.
I mean, that's kind of exactlywhat I'm doing right now is I'm
trying to remember that everytime that I'm going to make a
video and I'm like, oh, I don'tknow if I should, who would even
care?
I'm trying to remember that.
And so I'm no great philosopheror anything.

(02:48):
It's just something that was onmy mind after that last video I
made and I didn't really sayanything about that.
But it's come to me now and Ithink it's something that's
important, and if it even pushesone person to take a step
closer to whatever the thing isthat they want, I hope that it
reaches that person and it canmake some difference in some
small way.
So that's pretty much all I haveto say about any of this.

(03:10):
I just wanted to get it outthere, see if it resonates with
anybody and hopefully helpsomebody get closer to whatever
goal it is, whether it's realestate, whether it's going to
flight school, whether it'sstarting a YouTube channel,
maybe having a family who knowswhat the thing could be but it
was something that was on mymind and it felt pertinent to
bring up, so I hope everyone'shaving a good night.
If you happen to watch this andyou found it interesting or

(03:32):
valuable or resonated with youin some way like comment,
whatever don't do anything, Iguess, but I really appreciate
you just taking the time to evenget to this point in the video
and I hope you have a greatnight.
I hope you have a great 2025and hopefully I'll talk to you
soon, see ya.