The Worst that Can Happen

Consider the cost of never trying alongside the risks of taking a chance.

What is the worst that can happen if you go after your dream?

Most people answer that question by imagining failure. They picture the business that does not make money, the investment they lose, or the embarrassment of telling people it did not work.

Then they compare that picture with staying where they are. Trying looks risky. Not trying looks safe.

But there is something missing from that comparison: What if it works?

What if you could create the business, help the people, earn the money, and build the life you want—and you never give yourself the chance?

The feeling you are afraid of

I teach that the worst thing that can happen is a feeling. Even when you imagine losing your money, your job, or your reputation, what makes those circumstances a problem for you is what you make them mean and how you feel.

That is the first part of understanding your worst-case scenario. You are afraid of the shame, disappointment, or embarrassment you imagine experiencing.

Take someone who wants to quit their job and start a coaching business. They imagine leaving a good salary, investing money, and not getting clients. To them, that is the worst possible outcome.

I will ask whether they could go back to a job. They may be out the money they invested and the salary they did not earn, but they could return to earning a salary. Is taking a chance on their dream worth that to them?

Sometimes they say yes. Sometimes they say no. But either way, we have not finished looking at the worst-case scenario.

Not making money may be the beginning

If you start a business and do not make money right away, that may simply be the beginning of owning a business. The first month, the first few months, even the first year can be the process of figuring it out.

You do not have to label that beginning as failure.

And if you return to a job, you have returned to something similar to where you started. The situation you are so afraid of ending up in may be the situation you are already living in.

What you have not considered is the opportunity you lose by never trying. You could have built a successful business. You could have made a contribution you loved. You could have helped people and supported your family in a new way.

You will never know if you decide ahead of time that you are not going to give yourself that chance.

What I almost misunderstood about my own business

When I decided to change my business model and create Self-Coaching Scholars, I talked with my CFO, Mark, about the worst that could happen.

My thinking was that if the new model did not work, I could return to the old one. I already loved that business. Returning to it hardly seemed like a terrible outcome.

At the time, that helped me move forward. But a year later, I realized I had been wrong about what the worst outcome really was.

The worst outcome would have been never changing my business model.

I would have missed doubling my revenue. Six people would not have had the jobs they had with me. Dozens of people who changed their lives through Scholars might not have made those changes in their drinking, eating, money, businesses, and emotional lives.

That would have been a much greater loss than trying something that did not work.

When you make a decision, you cannot only consider what happens if it fails. You also have to consider what you give up if it could succeed and you never try.

Count the cost of the opportunity you do not take

A student told me she was considering taking money from her savings to invest in her business. She thought the worst outcome was losing that money.

I asked her to look at the other side. What if she could have grown that investment and did not give herself the chance? What if leaving $10,000 untouched meant missing the opportunity to create $50,000?

Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Include your potential in the way you think about this decision.

Think about the successful people you admire. What if they had been too afraid to start the business, write the book, or put their work in front of other people? We would have lost the value they created.

Never trying does not eliminate failure. In my mind, it is failing ahead of time.

Have your own back when you go all in

I have tried many things that did not succeed. I took every lesson I could from those experiences, and I use those lessons in my life now.

I am going to fail again. I am going to set more impossible goals. When I think about what I might be capable of creating, not trying feels like the bigger failure.

If I go all in while taking care of my mind, myself, my family, and my priorities, I promise myself that I will not beat myself up for having tried. I will have my own back.

I want you to explore that same question. Would you hold the effort of going after your dream against yourself? Or could you honor yourself for showing up, learning, and giving your life that chance?

It just might work. You might create the life you want. You might help the people you want to help.

The worst-case scenario is that you could have—and you did not.