I’ve been asked multiple times if I was nervous about leaving everything behind, quitting my salary job and starting my own business, selling most of my possessions and venturing on such a long trip. “What about your stable income, Piero? How are you going to support yourself (and your wife)? What if you get stranded somewhere? Are you bringing pepper spray everywhere you go with you?”

We are interesting beings, us humans. We pride ourselves of the gift of rationality and clear thought, of reason, yet most of us are trapped in constant fear.

When we are presented with a new and unknown situation, we focus on what could go wrong before we see what could go right. It doesn’t matter if the chances of getting stranded somewhere while driving are 1 in 100. People will place their attention on an unlikely scenario, forgetting to visualize the beautiful places, the great experiences and moments that will result from the choice to drive in new places far away from home.

People are scared of risk. Ironically risk is everywhere. When you get behind the wheel to drive to work, you take the risk of getting into an accident. When you get into an airplane, you risk crashing. It doesn’t really matter what you do, there’s always a chance an asteroid could hit earth. But what are the odds?

I love risk. I’m not talking about taking unnecessary risk. I’m talking about getting to know it, rationalizing it, accepting it and making it part of my daily life.

Risk is everywhere and there’s nothing we can do to avoid it. By fearing it we make the choices that keep us trapped in what we consider safe. Trapped in our jobs, routines, relationships, places. By embracing it we can start to become more rational and evaluate whether it could be feasible to change a job we don’t like, switching up our habits, get courage to start a new relationship or decide to travel to new places.

Think of your life being balanced by a risk/reward ratio. You want the rewards to be as big as possible, while keeping the risks small. The risks may increase at times, but as long as the rewards are overwhelmingly bigger… you are probably placing the right odds in your life.

Don’t be afraid of risk. Get to know it and embrace it.

p.s. I finally got a Compushade screen glare protector for my laptop (you can see it around my computer screen in the picture)! It works really well, although the quality of the material is a little cheap.