
What’s the worst thing that can happen? - LeonW
http://leostartsup.com/2012/01/whats-the-worst-thing-that-can-happen/
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richardburton
One thing I have noticed about a lot of the most successful entrepreneurs is
that _they all have a stable home to fall back on_. If the worst thing that
can happen to you financially is going bankrupt and living with the parents, I
think it instils a certain confidence in you. It is a level of confidence that
someone who has to support their parents or siblings cannot afford. The
entrepreneurs I am thinking of range from close friends up to Branson, Gates,
Jobs et al. All of these guys have come from good homes. I feel lucky to have
a safe base to fall back on if it all goes to shit. Thanks mum. Thanks dad.

------
jodrellblank
If happiness is what you want to practise, why is the exercise you do
"imagining bad things"?

I put it to you that the exercise you really do is misleadingly named and that
it is actually "what's the best that could happen, given this setback".

The worst that could happen includes losing a paying customer who then finds
his business in trouble when he can't get a stable alternative, blames you,
sues you under an obscure law which you didn't know of and you lose your
company, job and go to jail. Or your site goes down and you can't fix it and
your company sinks and your friends ostracize you and your cofounders rubbish
your image publically. Or a disgruntled user hunts you down and murders you in
your sleep.

You're not doing "worst that could happen", you're doing "least worst that
could happen" or maybe "most likely thing that will happen" to get _away_ from
the above thinking.

~~~
Cushman
True, it's not a great example-- I honestly think the author has missed the
point of the exercise. "We might be down for thirty minutes" is not actually
that bad of a thing, as you point out; he's just practicing avoidance, which
is not the path to happiness.

However, Buddhist mindfulness really does predict that the only way to be
happy is to contemplate, and accept, your most secret and horrific fears. Try,
"No matter how hard I work, what I make will eventually fail and be replaced."
Or maybe "Everyone and everything I love will die and be utterly forgotten in
a few hundred years."

This is, in fact, practicing happiness. It seems absurd, but if you can't be
happy and productive while accepting these thoughts, you weren't ever really
happy; just in denial.

~~~
grannyg00se
"Everyone and everything I love will die and be utterly forgotten in a few
hundred years."

That one isn't really that bad though. Unless you are obsessed with leaving
some kind of significant mark on humanity. For most of us, what is remembered
and forgotten in a few hundred years is hardly relevant since we will be dead.

------
abhaga
I find the advise useful for certain situations. For example, hesitation is
contacting a prospective customer for fear of rejection.

But this has the potential to lead down the path of mediocrity if applied in a
company. Just one more lost customer, just another half an hour of down time,
just another customer support call missed. They pile on.

The key is to know your core values as a company and be paranoid about them.
If your USP is amazing customer service, you should feel like the world ending
if one support call is missed. However you may not worry about occasional
downtime of half an hour. The situation would be opposite if you offer an
infrastructure service and your outage affects your customers' business.

The paranoia in these cases is not rational but that element of irrationality
is your edge.

------
lionhearted
You can do lots of seemingly crazy things if you're willing to do this
analysis. It's surprisingly, almost shockingly easy to get meetings with top
decisionmakers if you're tenacious and don't mind being rejected, knowing that
you've really got nothing to lose.

~~~
akg
I think to get to that point one needs to be comfortable with discomfort. That
is when you push the boundaries you are capable of, grow, and accomplish
amazing feats.

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akg
We place too much onus on considering and evaluating potential outcomes of our
actions and inactions. I find that most things that we are involved in are not
make or break situations. Losing a customer, getting rejected, failing at a
project, are all pretty minor speed bumps and most times they will not impact
your life/business in any drastic way.

Life is composed of small incremental steps. It's important to keep an open-
mind, learn, grow, and tread forward. As long as you do that it doesn't much
matter much if you miss some steps, there will be plenty of opportunities to
correct course when you stop to introspect.

------
truth_dude
Shitty app

