Better unsafe than be sorry…
Picture this for a moment: a 12-year-old girl in rural Vietnam navigates a mountain pass on a rickety scooter, balancing what appeared to be her family’s entire worldly possessions behind her. Meanwhile, in California, parents are being investigated by child services for letting their 10-year-olds walk to school alone. Something isn’t adding up, and it’s not just cultural differences—it’s our entire relationship with risk.
One more to stretch your imagination please- visualise that you are standing at the edge of a 50-foot cliff in Acapulco( off the Pacific coast of Mexico), watching local divers plunge into a narrow inlet where the timing of waves meant the difference between exhilaration and catastrophe. A weathered diver notices your wide eyes and said something you’ll never forget: “In Mexico, we have a saying—if you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never swim in the ocean.”
We’ve all heard the adage “better safe than sorry.” It’s whispered by well-meaning parents, reinforced by cautious teachers, and emblazoned across corporate compliance manuals. It’s the anthem of the risk-averse, the rallying cry of the comfortable-but-unfulfilled. But what if this cherished wisdom is actually holding us hostage?
What if—hear me out—we should instead embrace “better unsafe than be sorry“? Before you dismiss this as reckless nonsense, let’s be clear: I’m not advocating for jumping blindfolded into traffic or investing your life savings in cryptocurrency based on a dream you had. I’m talking about calculated risk-taking—the kind that propels humanity forward while everyone else is busy constructing elaborate safety nets that ultimately become cages.
The Mathematics of Regret– Let’s talk about the mathematics of regret, which surprisingly few people calculate correctly. Most of us overestimate the cost of action and underestimate the cost of inaction. We obsess over what might go wrong if we take a risk, while barely acknowledging what we sacrifice by standing still. Jeff Bezos frames this perfectly with his “regret minimization framework.” When deciding whether to leave his comfortable job to start Amazon, he imagined himself at age 80, looking back. Would he regret trying and failing? Perhaps. But would he regret never trying at all? Absolutely.
Better safe than sorry. Bullshit. That mind-numbing mantra has created generations of professionally cautious, expertly hesitant humans who’ve mastered the art of avoiding failure while simultaneously avoiding anything resembling an extraordinary life.
Global Risk-Takers Who Are Eating Your Lunch– While you’re triple-checking that spreadsheet, here’s what’s happening elsewhere:
Kenya: M-Pesa revolutionized mobile banking years before Western banks even considered it possible. Why? Because Kenyan entrepreneurs couldn’t afford to wait for “ideal conditions.” They built a financial revolution using the tools they had while Western counterparts were still forming committees to discuss feasibility studies.
China: In Shenzhen, hardware prototypes go from concept to production in days, not months. Their mantra: ship first, optimize later. By the time Western companies finish their risk assessments, Chinese manufacturers have already released three product iterations.
Iceland: After the 2008 financial collapse, they threw bank executives in prison and essentially rebooted their economy. When was the last time your country tried turning it off and on again?
The Privilege Paradox– Here’s the twisted irony: The more security you have, the less likely you are to take risks. People with multiple safety nets often take fewer chances than those with none. In Silicon Valley, it’s not the Stanford graduates from wealthy families starting the most disruptive companies—it’s often immigrants who’ve already risked everything just to get there. When you’ve fled political instability or crossed borders with nothing but hope, launching a business doesn’t seem so daunting. The people with the most to lose often risk the least, ensuring they’ll never gain much either.
The Graveyard of “Someday”– Someday is where dreams go to die comfortable, unmemorable deaths. Someday I’ll start that business. Someday I’ll write that book. Someday I’ll have that difficult conversation. Spoiler alert: Someday isn’t on the calendar. It’s a fantasy construct designed to help you feel better about not taking action today. We live in the comfortably myth that we will always have our tomorrow. But, without being a wizard at math, we know that our tomorrows are finite. The graveyard is the richest place on earth. So, get ready to Die Empty.
The Silent Epidemic of Regret– We have met people in their 80s and 90s and talked about their regrets. Not one—not a single one—said they regretted taking too many chances. The universal regret was playing it too safe, caring too much about what others thought, and postponing joy and adventure in favor of security. They didn’t regret the risks that failed; they regretted the risks untaken. As palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware documented after years working with the dying, the most common regret was “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Nobody lies on their deathbed thinking, “Thank God I always played it safe.”
Life’s Too Short for Seatbelts – Let’s get real: life is a blink. You can spend it tiptoeing around, terrified of making a wrong move, or you can throw caution to the wind and live out loud. Travel to that remote village. Start that business. Quit that soul-sucking job. Ask that person out. As Hunter S. Thompson famously said, “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!’”
Safety First – The Official Tagline of the Comfort Zone– The Titanic was “unsinkable.” Nokia was “invincible.” Blockbuster was “unstoppable.”
All played it safe. All are now cautionary tales.
“Safe” Is Just Another Word for “Stagnant”- Everyone said the Sistine Chapel ceiling would collapse if Michelangelo painted it the way he did. He ignored them. Today, it’s still up there, mocking caution. Elon Musk sank $100 million into SpaceX, and his first three launches exploded. The “experts” called him a delusional billionaire.” Now NASA rents rockets from him.
Sarah Blakely, founder of Spanx, was told shape wear was a niche, silly idea. She didn’t listen. Today, she’s a billionaire, and her critics are still wearing bad underwear. Had they played it safe, we’d still be riding horses, wearing corsets, and getting mail via pigeon.
Risk Is the Price of Admission to Greatness– Think about this: The first person to eat an oyster was either brilliant or completely unhinged. Either way, we owe them. Shigeru Miyamoto created Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda—AFTER his boss at Nintendo told him his ideas were “too weird.” Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Prince built entire careers by being too much while others played it safe in polyester suits. Trevor Noah took over The Daily Show despite critics saying a South African couldn’t replace Jon Stewart. Today? He made it his own. If you want to matter, you have to risk looking stupid.
Discomfort is a proxy for progress.
The Joy of Regret Minimization– When we look back on our lives, what do we regret more: the risks we took or the chances we didn’t? A study by Cornell University found that people tend to regret actions they didn’t take more than those they did—like that time you hesitated to ask someone out and then spent years wondering what could have been. It’s like ordering a dish at a restaurant and thinking about how good the other options might have been while you chew on your bland choice.
The Fear Factor– Fear is a powerful motivator, but it can also be a crippling barrier. We often hear the phrase “better safe than sorry,” but what does that really mean? It means staying in jobs we hate, relationships that drain us, or cities that stifle our creativity—all because we’re afraid to take a leap of faith. Look at Bollywood’s own Priyanka Chopra; she left her comfort zone and ventured into Hollywood. Now she’s not just an actress but a global icon! If she had played it safe, we’d still be watching her in “Bajirao Mastani” instead of “Quantico.”
The Final Reckoning- We’re not taught to calculate the cost of safety, but we should be. It’s often catastrophically higher than the cost of calculated risk. The cost of safety is paid in: Unexplored paths, Unlived experiences,Uncreated art, Unlaunched businesses,Unexpressed truths,Unloved people. These aren’t just poetic concepts. They’re the actual currency of a life well-lived, and no amount of security can compensate for their absence.