The introduction of Never Play it Safe ends with a story I've heard before from Chase Jarvis. To abbreviate it, Paul is a photographer in Africa and he gives up his living situation to pursue his dream of photography. We hear about Paul because he succeeded. His story is talked about by Jarvis as one to emulate.
We should be so passionate about our dream that we give up our housing to purchase a camera. We should take a risk and get so close to homelessness that we're scouting boxes for viable shelter.
My biggest problem with books like Jarvis' is that it's firmly based on survivorship bias. We only get these types of books from people that took all the risks and had it work out. We never hear from the other African photographers1 that made similar sacrifices and didn't have them work out. That did end up on the street. We never hear from them because they didn't survive, so their story doesn't mesh with the narrative that if you sacrifice enough and want it enough and work hard enough…your dream will happen.
This idea that hard work gets you what you deserve is a fallacy. None of us are wholly self-made. We benefit from public education, libraries, roads, power, and many other things that we did nothing to contribute to while we took advantage of their existence.
The narrative of a self-made person is alluring though, because it lets those that succeed believe they did it on their own merit. It lets them believe that those who didn't succeed clearly didn't work hard enough and thus deserve what they got.
I also easily fall into this idea that if we dream hard enough, it will work out. This is part of my charm, I don't stress much no matter what's happening. But that also means I've taken a risk and bet my family's food and shelter on a dream before and almost had us on the street. I hustled, reaching out to a number of business prospects a day to try and get what I wanted. I wrote and did videos and launched courses and launched books.
It didn't work out and my family paid the price for my hubris.
That's my first counsel as we read Never Play it Safe. You're hearing from someone that didn't play it safe and won. You're not hearing from someone like me who tried and failed. There is a more measured risk you can take that can still net out to success, but doesn't risk the house.
