No Death Bed Regrets, OK?
Channel Your Inner Bezos
Here’s the thing: It’s not about being risk averse, it’s about being regret averse.
There’s a pretty well known story about Jeff Bezos, the guy who started Amazon. The story goes like this: Jeff Bezos quit his nice hedge-fund job to start Amazon. He did this big leap of faith because he imagined he was 80 and he wanted to be an 80 year old who had as few regrets as possible.
Back in 2021, Utkarsh Amitabh wrote about career transitions in the framework of the regret minimization formula for the Harvard Business Review, he talks about how Bezos’ boss walked around New York’s Central Park to talk about why Bezos wanted to quit. His boss gave him two days to decide to quit.
Bezos theorized that even if he failed, he would regret not trying, because when you ignore your dreams you become a curmudgeon yelling at kids and dogs to stay off your lawn.
Amitabh writes,
“Transitions aren’t just about doing something different. A career transition is a lifestyle redesign that often entails rethinking how you want to feel at the end of the day, how you want to spend your time, and how this relates to your longer term goals. When you feel this need for change, it isn’t necessarily related to a fancier title or more money, but your inner voice whispering that you could do more, be more, experience and achieve more.”
Morgan Housel writes,
“David Cassidy’s last words were, “So much wasted time.”
What a terrible thing to realize when it’s too late. And I wonder if it’ll become more common as many of us spend our days aimlessly scrolling our phones.
Regrets are a dangerous liability because their final costs are often hidden for years or decades. And decisions that are easiest in the short run are often the most costly in the long run.”
For Hausel and for Bezos it isn’t necessarily about risk; it’s about making sure that they aren’t going to be old and full of regrets.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE FROM SPARTY DOG
Get all the love before the animal control officer gets you.
Use your teeth while you still have them.
LINKS WE MENTION
https://news.yahoo.com/florida-man-gets-arm-ripped-152000483.html
https://www.yourtango.com/self/late-life-regrets-avoid-all-costs
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.
Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.
We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream biweekly live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.
Carrie is reading one of her raw poems every once in awhile on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!