Nicolas ColeCo-Founder Ship 30 for 30, Premium Ghostwriting Academy

De-Risk Your Personal Life To Take More Risks In Business

14 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, Nicolas Cole argues that entrepreneurs already operate at maximum risk by running a business, so they should minimize additional personal financial risk. He recounts advice from a venture‑capitalist friend who warned that taking money out of the business to make speculative investments (e.g., buying risky stock options) compounds risk unnecessarily. Cole’s core message is that the higher the risk embedded in the business, the more an entrepreneur should de‑risk their personal life—keeping personal finances stable, avoiding high‑volatility bets, and preserving capital for the business itself.

Chapters

If you're an entrepreneur, by definition, you are living in a constant state of max risk, which means the best thing you can do with your personal money is take minimal risk. A VC friend of mine in LA told me this years ago. I was just starting to make real money and I was asking him what I should do with it. And he was like, Cole, the first thing you really need to internalize is that as an entrepreneur, you live in a constant state of risk. There is nothing riskier that you can do with your money than start and run a business. And as you grow, your foot is on the gas pedal 100 miles an hour. And so if you're going to take money out of the business, you You don't want to then go, well, let me take this money out of the business and then let me go buy a bunch of options on a risky company in the market. It's like, why would you already be in max risk and then take money out and then double down and then go pick another max risk thing? The more risk inside the business, the more you want to de-risk your personal life.