Bridger PenningtonFund Launch & Investment Expert

Best Business Advice I’ve Ever Received 💸👀

16 May 2025 · 1 min

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A Harvard guest told the speaker that his worst-case scenario—sleeping on a friend's couch—is better than how 90% of the world lives. The real bet: downside is still an above-average life, upside is millions. That reframing made starting a business look like a low-risk move.

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One of the best business pieces of advice I've ever got. There's this guy that came and spoke to us from Harvard University, came to our school. I went up and talked to him. I shake his hand and said, hey, I loved your talk. I'm looking to start a business. I feel like it's a lot of risk. And he goes, what do you mean risk? And I'm like, yeah, it's risky. I could drop out of school. I won't get my degree. I have a gap in my resume. And he kind of scoffed and laughed at me. And he's like, we're not talking about the same level of risk. If you hit rock bottom, you lost everything. Do you have a family member or a friend that you could move in with and you could sleep on their couch or their floor? Would they have like AC and like a roof over your head? And maybe they'd have a fridge with some food in it. I was like, yeah, and he goes, your worst-case scenario is better than 90% of the world lives right now. What happens if you start this business? I'm like, oh, we could go make tons of money, we could make millions of dollars. He's like, okay, so your upside is you make millions. Your downside is you live better than 90% of the global population. It seems like you got a pretty good bet right there.