Ep 760 | Living a Life of Oh Wells

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. In the 1970s, a guy named John DeLorean was a rising star at General Motors. John was young, he was charismatic, he was a brilliant engineer. He actually helped create the Pontiac GTO, which is one of the original muscle cars. John DeLorean had status and security and prestige. He had a very clear path to the top of corporate America. But then John chose to walk away. Because he believed that he could build something better. So he goes out and launches the DeLorean Motor Company. Stainless steel body on this car. It had these really interesting gull-wing doors, had this very futuristic design. If you, if you don't know what this car looks like, go watch the movie Back to the Future. That is in fact the DeLorean, right? This car was pretty— but, and it's a real car. I think a lot of people think the Back to the Future car is not a real car. Of course, it's not a car that travels in time, but the DeLorean itself is a, a real car for sure that, that sells even still today in, in car auctions, things like that. But anyhow, the car was, was pretty ambitious. It was pretty bold, and it was certainly very different. But John DeLorean and his company were also very undercapitalized. They had delay upon delay when making the car. They were way over budget. They were operationally strained. And his company ended up collapsing. Then came the scandal. He was arrested in, in a highly publicized FBI sting that involved drug trafficking, later acquitted. But he still had this sting nonetheless, and the company never recovered. Financially, it was a total disaster. Publicly, it was a complete spectacle. Why am I telling you this story though? John DeLorean did not live cautiously. He didn't stay inside the safe corporate lane that was laid out for him. He left that certainty for vision and it didn't work. Oh well. History remembers John DeLorean as flawed, yet ambitious and risky, but not passive. And I think that's really important. Now, let me tell you a second story. I want you to contrast that story with someone who also left certainty and made it work, unlike John DeLorean. Phil Knight. In the '60s, Phil Knight was selling Japanese running shoes out the trunk of his car. He had no money, no capital, no brand, no guarantee. He even borrowed $50 from his father to start what later became Nike. For years, this company was fragile. There was cash flow issues, distribution challenges, manufacturing problems. At one point, Nike was days away from collapsing because of the pressure put on, put on it by banks. Phil Knight could have said, hey, what if this fails? Or what if I lose everything? What if I embarrass myself? But instead, he kept moving. He innovated. He signed risky endorsement deals. He really leaned into marketing. He doubled down on brand when logic said conserve cash. See, Nike didn't become Nike because it was safe. It became Nike because Phil Knight was willing to tolerate uncertainty, which, Mike, much like DeLorean, was just another oh well. What do I mean when I say all this? I think both of these guys left safety and both took risks and both believed in their vision. Yes, one of these guys failed spectacularly and the other one built an empire, but neither lived in what I'm going to call the what-if. They didn't stay inside the guardrails of comfort. Instead, they leaned into the oh well. See, oh well does not guarantee success, but what if guarantees you playing small. So if you wait until the move is certain, or until the market validates it, or until the risk disappears, you may never go, and instead you're left saying, "What if?" sometime down the road versus, "Oh well, if it didn't work out." Now, I think there's something even deeper here. Most entrepreneurs don't regret, regret the swings they take. They regret the hesitation. They regret the deal they didn't pursue or maybe that offer they never launched, even the conversation they may have avoided. See, failure hurts, but paralysis, like I'm describing here, lingers. The sting of an "oh well" fades, but the weight of a "what if" not only never goes away, but it can compound. When you really study the regrets of those that are nearing their final days, almost all of those regrets are "what if." type of regrets. It's not the oh wells, it's not the failures that they have regret around. It's the what-ifs. And those what-ifs have compounded over time. It's the weight of that what-if. So, here's the deal. You do not control outcomes, but you control motion. A life that's full of oh wells, it might include some pretty gnarly scars. But a life full of what-ifs, well, that includes what I would call invisible regret. And I think in entrepreneurship, motion, even imperfect motion, I think it beats hesitation every single time. So as we wrap up today, I just want you thinking around this particular message. Are you living a life of oh wells where you're willing to take a chance? It may not work out and you're just saying, "Oh well, on to the next." Or are you possibly living a life of what-if? Where you're asking, "Hey, what if this fails? What if this doesn't work out? What if this doesn't go the direction I want it to go?" Which one are you? Now, which one would you prefer to be? Part of what we do here at No Days Off is bring awareness. And I think today's episode is exactly that. So if you got to change some things up, well, let's get into action today. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.