Why taking the risk is important

[Music]

hi everyone

so today you can see the slide so i’m

going to talk about

i’m going to talk about you know things

that are holding us back in our life and

can we do something to change that

a lot of us most of us right we spend

almost all our lives just saying this

one phrase

i wish i wish i could do a startup i

wish

i could leave this job that i had i wish

i could do this i could do that and

the one question that i’ve always

thought is

if we wish why don’t we do

what is stopping us

it turns out this is stopping us

not my dog right his name is simba

he’s a very sweet dog and he he will not

come in your way

right now here

you see he is tied to this chair

now like any dog what does he want to do

he wants to run around he wants to jump

but he’s stuck he’s held back he’s bound

he’s bound by what he’s bound by

that chair a small light plastic chair

right how much does a chair weigh

so in reality right that chair will be

probably a kilogram

but in his mind that chair

weighs a mountain right now this is not

just his reality this is

this is what is happening and what

happens to

it happens to me it happens to you it

happens to all of us

we are held back by that one chair

we are not we are not held back because

we don’t have money what is holding us

back is not the family we are born in it

is not our surname it’s not our height

not our weight not our skin color it’s

not our passport

it’s not even your college degree voting

is holding what is holding us back

is that one kg chair that’s it

now you may ask the question okay it

kind of sounds good but then

you know this is real life in real life

there are constraints

so i don’t deny that i’m not saying that

money does not matter or luck does not

play any role those things are important

for sure i’m not even i’m not even

saying that

you know if you if you decide to do

something

the whole world will conspire to make it

happen right

this is something you must have seen

turns out

the world is really bad at conspiring

right so what do you see here

this is this is nonsense right

it’s not going to happen but

but the fact remains that

even though we cannot do everything we

want even it’s not true that and if you

decide to do something

you can do it it’s not true that and if

you want to be somebody you can just be

that guy

but but we can do

a lot more than what we think we can do

my dog if he decides to fly can he fly

no he cannot do that but he can do a lot

better than being bound to a 1kg chair

so here’s the question why why does he

not break free

that chair that this my dog is very

strong if he decides to give it a push

the chair will go rolling on the floor

and yet

he never pulls or never pushes a chair

why is that

because he assumes that it is it is very

very heavy

this is not just simba story this is the

story

of all of us and if you are not careful

one day this could be your story

we just assume that the things that are

that are weighing us down they are

infinitely heavy

now today i want to share some stories

with you from my life

to show you how that 1kg chair

is weighing all of us down

many years back i was in a wedding

and this one guy i just happened to meet

he walked by he was a guest

and then he asked me what do you do so i

said

i said i was an ips officer and now i

have resigned and i run a startup

so this guy happened to be an is officer

and

so when he heard that he said wow

like that’s so amazing so many times i

wanted to quit the is but somehow i just

could not gather the courage

now just think about it this guy is most

likely a very talented

a smart guy he’s exactly the kind of

person

who should not be scared who should not

be worried about uncertainty and yet

he is very very scared

what is weighing him down that one kg

chair

and it’s not just him i know lots of

civil servants ias ips officers and a

lot of them trust me a lot of them are

not happy with their jobs

they won’t do something different but

every single time the same question

comes up

right uncertainty risk what can i do

i was uh i was in

i was in new york for some time after my

mba and uh

i used to i would come across a lot of

these people who work in

investment banking firms who work in

consulting firms

and i’m talking about these guys who are

who have

business degrees and law degrees from

the world’s top

universities harvard chicago wharton

stanford mitchell

you name it and yet

we were all united by just one thing

fear of what might happen

right now the jobs these guys were doing

as an example being an innocent banker

in a wall street firm

i think it is one of the most

soul-sucking jobs that you can imagine

and these are guys probably the smartest

in this world

and i am pretty sure many of them hate

their job

every single day and yet

yet they cannot break free

that is what is pulling them back now

you could say

yeah sure but then there is real world i

agree

i’m not saying that you know real world

constraints don’t matter

i’m not saying money doesn’t matter all

those things do matter but

compared to all those constraints the

biggest constraint

is in our head

i’ll give one more example

um there was a there was a friend of

mine

a mutual friend um from iit

i was talking to him a couple of years

back and

we were we were chatting and he was

telling me that he loves teaching

science

he used to teach science to his kids and

he said

very longingly you know one day one day

i would like to

start my own company and and teach

science so then i asked

him like why not do it now he said

yeah i want to but you know just risk

what will happen

dead like that now the question is

why is he scared and what is he waiting

for he’s waiting for

he’s waiting for that one magical day

when

there’ll be no fear there’ll be no

uncertainty when everything will be

safe and predictable and that day

will come when will that come

this is that day right now studies have

proven that

when you die your ability to do things

kind of goes down but

not this guy right so we are all

a lot of us are waiting for for that

magical moment and then we will start

doing things

now we know that’s not going gonna

happen right now let me share my own

story

i was uh an ips officer for about eight

years

and um then i decided to quit and do an

mba

now the funny thing is this whomever i

would tell my friends my relatives

anybody that i’m going to leave

so they would say yeah he’s just

blabbering you know he’s frustrated you

know

let him vent he’ll be fine nobody would

take me seriously

then one day i had gone to orissa and

uh my in-laws place and there was some

family wedding going on

so in between the wedding festivities

whenever there was some gap i would

i would sit and i’d be reading those

gmat prep guides

that’s when my father-in-law he asked my

wife is he serious

she said yeah now you can imagine his

shock

right she must be thinking like this guy

first he marries my daughter now he’s

gone totally nuts you know doing all

this stuff

right and and obviously everyone

dissuaded me in fact for many years i

did not even tell them that i’m leaving

the ips or that i have left

right now the question is these people

they don’t mean harm they mean well for

me

yet yet they don’t want you to

they didn’t want me to leave this job

now why is that let me let me explain

something about the indian police

service

if you join as an ips officer this is

your career progression

in four years time you become an sp 14

years dig

18 years igp 25 years

additional director general of police

another three to four years

djp and then i would have retired

at 5 pm on 31st august

2032

please don’t back calculate my age don’t

be a pest okay

now imagine a career where you know

exactly what will happen

30 years later and he quit the job

and you don’t know what will happen the

next day right

now think about the difference in the

uncertainty and that is why

people do not want to take the chance

and they tell you no no don’t don’t

leave the job don’t do that

but then i could ask a counter question

that

risk is not a bad thing risk is meant to

keep you safe from danger it makes you

make sure you don’t do stupid things

so the question is is there a problem

i think there is a problem and the

problem is not with avoiding does the

problem is that

as human beings we inherently hate risk

and

our intuition is unable to quantify risk

properly

and i’m going to now do a live

experiment with you

this is based on the research done by

a professor called daniel kahneman who

was a

who is a nobel prize winning nobel

laureate right

so here’s an experiment

okay i want to take a bet with you guys

okay we will toss a coin 50 50 chance 50

yuan

percent you lose if you win

if you win you get two lakhs

from me right now cash

cash is allowed okay don’t worry now if

you lose

you have to give me one lakh rupees so

here’s a question for the audience

how many of you will take that bet raise

your hand

not too many but a couple right i

expected more because this is like bits

goa you guys were thinking like

what man one lakh to like take 10 lakhs

you know don’t bother me right

but

but if you if you propose this bed to

like you know people in general

a vast majority of people will

not take the bet right the question is

why

the odds make sense in fact i would

argue if you

if you do this if you do this take this

by 10 times the probability of your

being out of pocket

is very very low and yet we are

not willing to take the bet and the

reason is that

people hate losing things we have

something called loss aversion

right if so gaining is important but

losing

what we have causes a lot more anxiety a

lot more pain

now the question is as professionals i

mean for you guys right

does it really matter i think it matters

this is why

now so there are two guys right

the one on the left he is loaded with

all these degrees you know

bits and i t i am whatever right and the

guy on the right he is from some

no-name university now here’s the

question

if both these guys start looking for a

job who has a better

chance of finding a job come on left the

left guy the right guy

left guy come on it’s you you have a

better chance

yet if you have to take a risk or fear

takers

who will have a higher capacity to take

risk

from my experience the guy on the left

is somebody like you and me

why is that because because of your

degree because of professional

qualification

you have a lot to lose versus a guy who

was

was nothing he has nothing to lose and

the guy who has nothing to lose is a

dangerous man

right that is that’s exactly what’s

happening and this

is what is holding us down

um in summary

right i would i would like to share with

you that you know when i

when i left the ips right people think

that it was a

it was a crazy risky step to be honest

that was not

that was not the step which was risky

right what is risky was when i left my

last job

to to become an entrepreneur that was

risky and

i’ll be candid with you i’ve gone

through ups i’ve gone through downs

i’ve gone through a lot more downs than

ups and financially and many other ways

i’ve been better off doing a job

but then it’s a choice i made and i’m

happy with the choice

today i run the startup concept out and

i teach science here

and and finally in this conference

the theme is eureka to discover yourself

right now how to discover yourself you

don’t discover yourself by

sitting on a couch and watching tv right

columbus discovered america what did he

do

he got on a ship and he sailed now he

wanted to get to india

right but he got to america and that’s

fine

if you want to discover yourself get it

from your couch

get on a ship and sail

you may not get to india but i can

assure you

you will get somewhere thank you

you