Earlier this week, a retired civil servant (IAS officer) dropped in at our house. And during our conversation, she said that on many, many occasions, she had the urge to quit the Civil Services and explore the world outside. But she could never gather the courage to do so.
Now, I don’t know if she was being serious or just pondering over what could have been.
But I have seen a lot of people wistfully think about the opportunities they could have explored but did not, due to risk, fear, and so on.
And it is not that they were irrational. When things go downhill, you realize that risk is not just a mathematical concept — it feels like someone kicked you in the gut.
But on the flip side, giving in to fear also has a cost — you feel like you lived life a little bit less.
I can’t give you the right answer, because there isn’t one. Life does not come with manuals or risk-reward formulas.
Ultimately, the question is: What price are you willing to pay for your dreams?
The bigger the dream, the bigger the price. There is no free lunch.
– Rajan