‘Your life is a gamble; the question is, are you willing to bet on yourself?‘~ Sahan Kodagi
A few years ago, I was working in a corporate job. I spent 8 to 10 hours every day working to make my boss richer, and even though I was earning a decent salary, I was depressed and frustrated.
I always found a reason to put off my dream of owning my own company. I was living a meaningless and empty life because of my fear. Failure is never easy, but failing at something you love is soul-crushing.
I knew I couldn’t continue to live this way.
Bet on Yourself
As cliche as it sounds, we only live once. You should never allow society to decide how you live your life. That’s why I decided to take the plunge and start my own event management company.
It’s a decision I’ll never regret. Even though the work is more challenging and the pay is less, I felt more fulfilled than ever.
Doing something you love will make you feel alive more than anything else. It will enable you to enter a state of flow and give you the strength to work harder than all your competitors.
The questions you have to ask yourself are:
Are you pig-headed enough to keep pushing through even when you feel like a failure?
Do you have the faith to sustain yourself through the many hardships you will encounter in your journey?
Are You Willing to Bet on Yourself?
The most successful people in history had shown the importance of being pig-headed and pushing forward, even when everyone thought they were crazy.
When Elon Musk first started Tesla and Spacex, he faced a lot of ridicule and mockery. Many otherwise intelligent people testified against him and SpaceX.
People who he had spent his life admiring. They said a private company sending astronauts to the international space station would be impossible. Many of his detractors called Elon a con-artist who would never deliver.
According to Musk, all of SpaceX’s success is the result of a tremendous gamble. When he was starting, Elon Musk thought he had only a 10% chance of reaching orbit. The people around Musk were skeptical too. They thought he was going to fail and lose all the money he had made in PayPal.
But Musk felt it was worth trying anyway.
Even Elon’s hero legendary astronaut Niel Armstrong suggested SpaceX would be a failure. Despite all this, he never gave up. He put everything on the line and backed himself.
Finally, in 2020, they were all proved wrong when SpaceX managed to successfully transport Astronauts to the International Space Station at a fraction of the price that NASA used to spend.
Even legendary startup founder Steve Jobs spent many of his initial years fighting off his critics. His critics said he was too much of a maverick to lead the company he co-founded.
At that time, Steve was regarded by the Board as inexperienced and immature to run the company. So they hired the then CEO of Pepsi-Cola, John Scully.
As an experienced business executive and good at playing politics within the company, John proved that he had all of the votes needed to go ahead with the reorganization and forced Jobs to resign. He was forced out of Apple and into exile for many years.
When he came back in 1997, Apple’s financial situation was so dire that Dell CEO and founder Michel Dell said, if he was in Jobs’s place. He’d dissolve the company and repay shareholders.
But, thanks to Job’s product direction, Apple was profitable again. From there, it went on to scale new heights with the iPod and the iPhone. It would eventually become the most valuable company in the world.
That is why it is essential to bet on yourself even when no one else is willing to do it.
If You Are Not Willing to Bet on Yourself, Why Do You Think Anyone Else Will?
The unfortunate reality is that you will never know if you are on the right path. Your only choice is to have faith in yourself.
Whenever you do something new or unique, you are going to encounter many critics and many naysayers. It is essential to develop a thick skin and stay the course.
Many studies have shown that people with strong “disagreeable” personalities tend to have higher income levels and success than “agreeable” people with deferential personalities.
It is essential to learn to stand your ground and not get overwhelmed by the mob of public opinion. That’s the only path to making a change and enjoying lasting success. Learn to take feedback, but make sure you are not overwhelmed by it.
As long as you think from first principles and are rational and logical, you will be fine. Bet on yourself and have faith in your potential and your ideas.
Comments
Sahan Kodagi
Sahan is the founder of Sage School a platform that helps you develop mental models, skill stacks, and systems that will allow you to maximize your productivity, improve your communication, and become the best version of yourself.
read more