How To Get Over The "Risk" of Entrepreneurship

Welcome back to the show. Today we're gonna talk about the risks of being an entrepreneur and how I actually overcame the fear of running your own business, the fear of losing it all. You hear about this all the time. How do entrepreneurs go out and do all this stuff? It seems so risky. This led us to over $8 million in sales in 2 years in one of our companies, helped me launch 3 investment funds. I just launched a new hedge fund right now and helped me wanna spend $500,000 on a live event. Now doing that under the age of 26, a lot of people say that's very risky. I can't believe the risk you take. And I actually wanna share a few things that have helped me feel like it's not risky and how we can find asymmetrical risk in what we're doing and actually how entrepreneurship is one of the least risky ways to run your life. Now, if you're new to the show, welcome. My name is Bridger Pennington. On this show, we talk all things funds, finance, and entrepreneurship. Primarily, we talk about investment funds, how hedge funds, private equity, venture capital funds work. But sometimes we like to go out of that little realm and get a little more broad here, which we're doing so today. Additionally, I get messages all the time. Bridger, I can't start a business. It's too risky. I'm too scared. They're going to take all my money. I'm going to get sued. Yes, that will probably Happen over your course of being a business person. However, think about the alternatives. Yeah, it's risky to run a business. It's also risky to run and work at a 9 to 5 at some company where they can walk in one day and fire you. You can work there for 10 years and they'll replace you in 2 weeks. That's a different type of risk. It's still risky. It's all risky. I love that quote from Jim Rohn. You seen that going around? He goes, it's all risky. The moment you were born, it was risky. The moment you went to school, it was risky. The moment you go driving a car, it's risky. Investing is risky. And wait until they give you the tab, the bill for not investing. Starting a business is risky, but wait until they hand you the bill for not starting a business. See, it's funny. You talk to a lot of these older people, let's call them 50, 60, 70 years old, and they're struggling with money. They're hoping their kids will support them. And you hear about the regret they have in their life. And a lot of them, and especially in the business world, say, man, I wish I would have taken a step. I wish I would have taken a leap into entrepreneurship because all my buddies that started businesses, yeah, some of them went up and down and failed, but eventually they succeeded. And now they've got tons of money. They're flying their family around the world. They're going on cruises. They're doing really fun stuff. And I'm I'm here stuck and I'm still worrying about bills and I'm on a fixed income. I can only spend $3,500 a month because I'm on this fixed income. To me, that sounds like a very risky life. Now, when I first started out, I was 21, 22 years old. I went out and started 6 companies my first year of college. And I remember this one specific experience that changed my life. I was at school, I was at Brigham Young University. I go into this little conference. They had a guy come. He's a young, successful guy from Harvard. He started a company, comes and speaks to the group. And it was a really cool talk. He speaks. I'm in the back of the room. I listen. I was, I was like, wow, this is pretty great. The guy finishes. He comes to the back of the room and they have other speakers coming up and they're talking and he's standing there. And I'm standing, I don't know, 15 feet away from him. I'm looking over at him like, he's right there. This is the guy that just spoke and he's got this incredible company. And at the time I'd started again 6 companies and I was starting to get worried about this risk of loss, the fear of losing a lot of money or risking it. Maybe I wouldn't finish my degree on time or wouldn't get the job right outta school like I wanted because I was trying to start these businesses. And I remember it was, I was at this kind of low weird point in my life and I just didn't know what to do. I said, I was kind of deciding, should I keep trying these entrepreneurial ventures or should I just do what everyone else is doing? Should I just go? I should just go grab a job and go work and work up the corporate ladder. And that's just, that's what seems like everyone else does. And at this moment I was feeling, I just, and something inside of me said, Bridger, you need to go talk to this guy. And I, you know, those 15 seconds of insane courage that people get, I had that. I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go talk to this guy. I'm gonna go ask him this question and see what happens. I muster up this courage. I say, screw it. I'm gonna go talk to this guy. What do I got to lose? I go over, I walk over to him and I say, hey, hi, my name is Bridger. I'm a student here. I've started all these little companies. I talked about a few of the companies that I've just been so worried about risking it. And should I have this other company I wanna start, but should I risk it and go after it? What would you do? And he goes, looks me dead in the eyes. He goes, risk? What are you talking about risk? And I go, well, yeah, I mean I could lose it all. I could crash and burn. It'd be pretty bad if I lost it. And he goes, what do you mean risk? He goes, Bridger, he goes, if you hit rock bottom, let's say you lost it all, do you have a cousin or a parent or 2 parents or a grandma or somebody that if you really hit rock bottom, you could move in with and they would help you with bills and all this other stuff and they would help you get back on your feet for a few months? And I thought about it. I said, yeah, you know what? I do have family or people in my life, friends that for sure, if I really hit rock bottom, they would let me move in with them. I could sleep on their couch and they probably had a bed and all that kind of stuff. He goes, okay, so let me understand this. You're going to go risk it on a business. If you lose it all, your worst-case scenario is you get to move in with somebody that loves you. You get to have a warm bed at night and food in a fridge that you can eat. Is that correct? I said, well, yeah, that's pretty much correct. And he goes, what are you talking about risk? He goes, your worst-case scenario is better than 80% of the world lives right now currently. He goes, we're not talking about the same degree of risk. If your worst-case scenario is you can move in with someone who loves you with food and you got a bed at night, you don't understand risk. And we finished up the conversation, I left, and that one conversation absolutely changed my life. Because I left that and I thought, that's so true. And I looked up the stats. If you live on food stamps, government assistance food stamps in the United States, you make more money than 85% of the world. On food stamps in America. I don't think we realize how blessed we are to live In the United States. And there's a term in finance called asymmetrical risk. Asymmetrical risk is essentially, you've heard the term before, high risk, high reward, right? Asymmetrical risk is you get high returns for relatively low risk. And yes, that is possible. And that's what, as fund managers, that's what we try to find. We try to find alpha or asymmetrical risk, high returns for relatively low amounts of risk. Entrepreneurship is asymmetrical risk. You have the chance to have a very high return. And guess what? If you lose it all, what, you're in college? You lost all of $5,000. Okay, you lose $5,000, whoop-de-doo. Okay, go get a job. The labor market's crazy right now. You can get a job anywhere. And as long as you keep your bills low and the time for me to survive every month was like, I needed $300 to survive every month. As long as I got that, I'm good. And I was like, I can get a job anytime, anyplace. I can make $300 in a month or $500 or $1,000 a month minimum. So, who are you not to go out and take a chance? Who are you not to go out and go after your dreams? And if you get it right, which most entrepreneurs end up after enough iterations, end up getting it right, You have the chance to buy yachts and huge houses and mansions and Ferraris and all sorts of whatever fun stuff. Donate to whatever charities you want. Help your kids with college. Help your mom or grandma with medical bills. Whatever you want to do, you become that person. And I thought that's a pretty good bet, especially on me. My favorite investing, my favorite bet and gambles are on myself because I believe I have asymmetrical risk. If I bet on myself, I know that I can find high returns for relatively low risk. So stop commenting on my stuff. Well, it's so risky. I don't know if I can start it. Screw that. Pull up your britches. Let's go after this. You live in one of the greatest times in the history of the world. Think about all the history of humans that have ever lived on the earth, right now is probably one of the best times ever to go out and start a business. Okay? You have the internet. You have access to information all over the world. You can learn anything from your freaking home with a phone or a laptop. So, if I see one more comment, I'm coming after you guys. You guys are awesome. Let me know what you think below and I'll see you guys on the next video. If you guys want to learn about funds, hit one of these videos below or on the side over here and I'll see you guys later. Bye.