When people reach the end of their life, what's the most common theme? Regret. I should've taken the risk. If only I could go back. Why didn't I put my ass on the line? Regret is inevitable. But there are certain choices, certain decisions, certain moments, that stick with you forever.
When those moments arrive, endless forces are pulling at you. Fear. Opinions. The idea of "what if." Most of those pressure, if not all, are screaming at you to stay put, to take your foot off the gas. "Don't be foolish," that voice in your head will tell you. "Why would you do such a thing?" a colleague or family member might utter. The more you sit with them, the stronger they get.
When Alicia Keys was fifteen years old, she was killing the music scene. She signed her first music record label with Columbia Records and was heading to stardom. Her mom was still adamant about Alicia going to college. Too scared to disobey her mother's wishes, she obliged, but didn't give up music in the process. She recalled on the time.
As a liberal arts major, I started with a full course load—and I felt overwhelmed practically from week one. Professors assigned an enormous amount of reading, sometimes hundreds of pages a week. My plan was to attend all of my classes during the day, and then stay on top of the reading while en route to my evening studio sessions…I’d then get to the studio around six p.m. and stay until two or three a.m. Later that same morning in my eleven o’clock class, I’d be in the back row, half asleep with my hoodie over my forehead…I was a total wreck. I was too exhausted to recall the little I’d managed to read.
The schedule was unattainable. Something was going to give. Music or school. Music or school. Music or school.
A few weeks into the school year, Alicia met with the dean. “So I have this record deal,” she told her. “And I’m also trying to get through my program here.”
“And how’s that all working out?” the dean asked gently.
“Well, not that great."
And as if the world knew Alicia needed an answer, some clarity, some words of wisdom that would bring some equilibrium back to her life, the dean told her. “You know Alicia, Columbia will always be here. And if you decide to invest your energy into music full-time, you could always come back.”
YOU CAN ALWAYS GO BACK. Remember that whenever you're making a big, life-altering decision, almost all the time, you can go back if it doesn't work out.
Want to leave the job you hate to take on a new venture? Do it. You can always go back and get another job if it fails. Think college isn't for you? Drop it or skip it. It's always going to be there. You can always go back and get a degree.
There's power in being all in, and when you take a risk, you need to take that approach. But if you're all in for a couple of years and it's not working out, put it in reverse and go back to where you were at.
When Elon Musk graduated college and was thinking about getting his PhD or starting a company during the rise of the internet, his first boss, Peter Nicholson offered him some advice. “Look Elon, the dot-com rocket is ascending. The time is perfect to take a good idea and take a risk with it, because you can always go back and do your PhD."
There's no greater filter for making big decisions. If you can go back, you might as well do the damn thing, take the risk, and put your ass on the line.
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