Watering It With Practice
We always emphasis the need to take risks, to make that leap, but why is that the case? Past experiences guide present sensations.
“The only risk in the world is to not take any.”
“People want you to lose because it helps them justify the risks they chose not to take.”
“Taking no risk is the biggest risk you can take. Regret from inaction is always more painful than regret from action.”
“The key to punching above your weight class—both romantically and economically—is to take risks.”
All great quotes on risk, but it begs the question of why we are told we need to take risks. It’s hard to pinpoint what it truly means. Seemingly, every successful person, or person I respect, emphasizes the need to take risks when you are young. As someone who is fairly young, I want to minimize my regrets and ensure that I am leveraging my youth properly. I want to fully embrace the “take risks” mentality.
The emphasis on taking those leaps when you are young comes from us already being so close to rock bottom. We are already naked. We have nothing left to lose. We might as well jump. We might as well take that risk.
But this is not meant to gloss over knowing if you are truly taking risks. It can be hard to “take risks” because it is different for everyone. It is relative to each person. What is scary to some, may be safe to others.
Other than being so close to rock bottom, why does everyone encourage people to take risks? Well, to start, past experiences guide present sensations.
In the book How Emotions Are Made, Neuroscientist Lisa Barrett says,
“In every waking moment, your brain uses past experience, organized as concepts, to guide your actions and give your sensations meaning.”
The brain is an archive of experiences. It looks through its records to find something similar to what is currently happening to try to predict what may happen next. It is a prediction machine that relies on muscle memory. It is no different than the muscles in our body.
When we do any physical activity, we rely on our past experiences to help guide us. When we want to lift a weight a certain way, ride a bike across the city, or ski down a mountain, our body taps into those previous experiences to help guide the present moment. My ability to ski does not combust into thin air a year after last doing it. Our body goes back in its archive to experiences over a year ago to channel that muscle memory and pick it up like we never left. Our brain is no different.
But there are of course moments where we have never done something before. If we enter a state of having no information to draw on from our past, to make sense of the present, we are in ‘experiential blindness’. It is part of the age-old adage of “how you practice is how you play.” If you have never practiced anything before, it is safe to say your first time doing something will certainly come with its bumps. This is why we need to do things multiple times before we feel comfortable doing them.
Our brain needs guidance in helping to predict how this experience may unfold. Just as bumpers on a bowling lane help guide the ball down the lane, our previous experiences help our brains construct our reality. The predictive brain slowly sculpts the human experience. So when you practice things over, over, and over, it helps the brain’s prediction signals leading to stronger outcomes and predictions.
Nick Saban, the former Alabama football coach, shared a story about the time Kobe Bryant visited his team. Kobe was asked by an Alabama Football player,
“How did you score 60 points in the last game you played?”
To which Kobe responded,
“I worked 8 hours a day for 365 days a year. So I could get through that season. They don’t put that part on ESPN.”
Past experiences guide present sensations. I think it is fair to say in Kobe’s eight hours of practice, he worked plenty on his moves, his ball handling, his shooting, and everything in between to prepare himself for games. When he had a defender closing out or he was doubled team in the paint, I am sure his brain could reference a point in time when he trained in those exact situations and he knew exactly what to do as a result. The double team he had seen thousands and thousands of times in practice. It has already been done over and over and over, again. This time, despite being in a game, it was no different. The brain is constantly painting a canvas. Now with practice in hand, it already has a strong outline to work from.
Sports are a metaphor for life. Confidence comes from your work. It is important to practice so when the time comes you can draw on your past experiences to guide the present sensations.
That is why I believe that part of the reason people preach to take risks when you are young is to develop your risk muscle as you age. Time only becomes more expensive as you age, so if we can develop a healthy risk appetite when we are young, we will have a strong sense of risk when we are older, especially financially. Just like it is easier to start a workout habit if you had a sports background as a kid, the same applies here.
Morgan Housel has a nice example in his book, Psychology of Money. There are three people–Sue, Jim, and Tom–and we want to examine what would happen if they saved $1 every month from 1900 to 2019. There are a few variables at play.
Sue – Sue invests that $1/month into the U.S. stock market every month, rain or shine. Doesn’t matter what is happening or what people are doing, Sue keeps investing.
Jim – Jim invests $1/month in the stock market when the economy is not in a recession, sells everything when it is, saves the monthly dollar in cash when a recession happens, and invests everything back into the stock market when the recession ends.
Tom – Tom gets scared by recessions and takes time to regain confidence. He invests $1 in the stock market when there is no recession, sells six months after a recession begins, and begins investing again six months after the recession ends.
Who do we think performs the best over time? What does that $1/month from 1900 to 2019 turn into?
Sue – $435,551
Jim – $257,386
Tom – $234,476
Sue comes close to doubling them. What Sue does is not exactly easy, but one could reasonably assume this is not her first rodeo and she became more and more comfortable over time investing during those recessions. The first recession may have taught her some about the ability to hold during turbulent economic times and what comes with taking those risks. Everyone is panicking, but Sue can go deep into her archive of experiences and see that if you can hold through economic downturns in the U.S. stock market, on a long enough timeline, you fare well.
There’s more to learn from people who endured risk than those who seemingly conquered it. The skills you need to endure risk are more likely repeatable and relevant. Hence the emphasis on taking risks. It is those who can stay calm because they have been there before. Bad things and unfortunate events are bound to happen. Success and the path to wealth doesn’t seem to be a linear one. So part of the emphasis to take risks when you are young is the need to be able to have a strong risk muscle and a deep archive of risk experiences to tap into when you are older and huge financial decisions, such as buying a house or taking on debt to continue your education, come along. The time when things truly matter and the investments can have true ripple effects.
And we can’t just envision these things, they must be put into practice. Ryan Holiday says,
“Practice the law of action, not attraction. Instead of envisioning the future you want, create it.”
Life is a plant and we need to water it with practice. We don’t want to be blind. The way to truly make the plant grow is to have moments in your past to draw upon. Times when your brain can look back and understand that it has been here before while trying to predict and construct reality. We shouldn’t just talk about it but be about it.
And this continues to be contrarian. Not only to take risks but to put them into action. We live in a very progressive, innovative world that continues to optimize for comfort. As a society, we have never been more comfortable. Just look at Hollywood.
We have created a culture that allows for sequels of movies to reach their tenth edition, I am looking at you Fast & Furious. Not to mention, just this year, we have sequels galore:
Despicable Me 4
Deadpool 3
Kung Fu Panda 4
Venom 3
Those are all sequels to movies coming out this year. These aren’t the second editions either, we are getting to the third and fourth sequels. Yes, I realize Despicable Me achieved great box office success, but this ignores the fact that this is comfortable. Part of the roots of creativity lie in taking risks. The first film was a great idea and maybe, one sequel was necessary but at a certain point, you have to resist the urge to continue to fall back in line and not push yourself beyond your boundaries.
Disney and Pixar have three sequels planned this year, four in 2025, and already three slated for 2026, a number that I am sure will grow. When you continue to go down a path that path will eventually become the default. It will continue to become more pervasive.
The willingness to take smart, calculated, healthy risks is a massive asset as most people fall back into safety. Just look at Hollywood. The beauty in it is it leaves the spoils to be discovered and had by those who seize it. Success doesn’t care about adjectives and the barometer for risk only gets better when it has experiences to draw on.
I find that the more I take healthy leaps, the better I become. My brain becomes better at predicting things it once couldn’t because it has past experiences to draw from. There is no dress rehearsal in life. It is all real life but it becomes a little easier when we water it with practice.
Appreciate you reading. If you enjoyed, please feel free to like.
-Scantron