Imagine you’re 80 years old.
You’re sitting back in your favorite chair and reflecting on your life.
For some reason you find yourself thinking back to that business idea you always had but never started.
Do you regret it?
If yes, then starting your own business is definitely worth it.
—
This simple yet powerful thought experiment is called the Regret Minimization Framework.
It is the basis for how Jeff Bezos makes many of his major decisions.
He
realized that life was about minimizing the number of regrets because
the downside of trying to do something he may regret and failing was
much lower than not doing it at all and regretting it later in life.
This framework helped me decide to start my business right out of college. Since that time, I’ve been through many up’s and downs, but it’s all been worth it.
Here’s why…
1) The downside of failure is limited
Starting
a business is risky. We’ve all heard those stats how roughly one-third
of all businesses fail within the first two years.
But failure sounds worse than it often is.
In
most cases, the biggest resource you are risking is your time and not
your money. But even if you fail and lose those things, in the long-term
these will seem small.
2) The financial upside can be huge
This one’s pretty straightforward. Build your company right, don’t fail, and your business can provide you with wealth.
3) Rapid learning
Being
forced to deal with new problems daily is by far one of the most
effective ways to learn. I learned more in 6 months of starting my
company than I did in all 4 years of college.
4) Create your dream life
Running
a company doesn’t have to be hard. Don’t believe all the entrepreneurs
out there who say 100 hour weeks are the only to run a startup.
Sure,
there are hard times, but if you approach business with the right
mindset, and build your company right, you can create a business that
is, dare I say it, easy.
5) Experience fulfillment
Creating
a business is not the only way to fulfillment, but in my experience it
has provided me with a greater sense of fulfillment than anything else
I’ve ever done. There’s something about bringing an idea to life from
nothing, creating a life that I want, and working with amazing people
every single day that really fills me up.
6) Be comfortable with uncertainty
Business
teaches you to be comfortable with uncertainty because no matter what
you think, you have no control. We’ve had a project going great and then
we get a call that our client’s factory burned down (seriously). As you
can imagine, that stalled the project.
Point is, uncertainty is always present, and business is a great way to practice being at peace with it.
—
Good luck,