Take Risk
Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name
Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage
To get rich, you're gonna need leverage
Leverage comes in labor, it comes in capital, or it can come through code or media
But most of these, like labor and capital, people have to give to you
For labor, somebody has to follow you
For capital, somebody has to give you money or assets to manage or machines
So to get these things, you havе to build up credibility and you have to do those undеr your own name as much as possible, which is risky
Which is risky
So accountability is a double-edged thing
It allows you to take credit when things go well and to bear the brunt of the failure when things go badly
[Chorus]
But you take risk
(That's right), risk
So you take risk of failure, risk of humiliation
You take risk of failure under your own name
You take risks
(That's right), risk
And the people who have the ability to fail in public under their own names gain a lot of power
People stamping their names on things aren't foolish
They're just confident
By putting your name out there, you become a celebrity and fame has many, many downsides
It's better to be anonymous and rich than poor and famous, but even famous and rich has a lot of downsides associated with it
You're always in the public eye
A lot of our training socially is telling us to not stick our necks out of the crowd
The tall poppy gets cut, don't stick your neck out. But clear accountability is important
Without accountability, you don't have incentives
Without accountability, you can't build credibility
[Chorus]
You take risk
(That's right), risk
So you take risk of failure, risk of humiliation
You take risk of failure under your own name
You take risk
(That's right), risk
And the people who have the ability to fail in public under their own names gain a lot of power
In modern society, there's no more debtors' prison
People don't go to jail or get executed for losing other people's money, but we're still socially hard wired to not fail in public under our own names
Up until about 2013, 2014, my public persona was entirely around startups and investing
And only around 2014, 2015 did I start talking about philosophy and psychological things
And it made me a little nervous because I was doing it under my own name
People in the industry sent me messages and were like, "What are you doing? You're ending your career. This is stupid."
And I kind of just went with it, I took a risk
Same with crypto, early on, I took a risk
But when you put your name out there, you take a risk, you also get to reap the rewards
You get the benefits
(People take risks, take a risk, take a risk, risk)
(You take a risk for certain things, you get to reap the rewards and the benefits)
[Chorus]
You take risk
(That's right), risk
So you take risk of failure, risk of humiliation
You take risk of failure under your own name
You take risk
(That's right), risk
And the people who have the ability to fail in public under their own names gain a lot of power