When I packed my life into a suitcase and took a one-way flight to Sydney, little did I know that the fearless leap would be the cornerstone of my journey and eventually lead to the birth of this podcast. Join us as we peel back the layers on why your 20s and 30s are the perfect time to take the risks that can shape your future. We share heartfelt stories and wisdom on the art of embracing uncertainty, diving into the power of bounded and unbounded risks, and the psychological intricacies that fuel our need to step out and take chances. This isn't just about changing jobs or starting a new business; it's about the profound growth that lies in the wake of risk-taking and the unparalleled joy of discovering what you're truly capable of when you challenge the status quo.
Throughout this episode, we're not just recounting tales of entrepreneurial grit; we're equipping you with the insights to navigate life's thrilling high wire. We draw from the daring spirits of individuals like Stephen Bartlett, who remind us that the most significant hazard in life is to play it safe and succumb to the dreaded "what ifs." You'll hear about the leaps of faith that mirror bungee jumping escapades, symbolising the adrenaline-fueled triumphs that come from calculated gambles. All this serves as a clarion call to live courageously, to view every stumble as a stepping stone, and to approach each day with the conviction that the path less traveled is not just for the young at heart, but for anyone willing to turn their dreams into reality.
For any enquiries or to connect with Oscar, Zeke, or their company, Asset Road, listeners can visit the following links:
The advice shared on The Finance Bible is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. The Finance Bible exists purely for educational / entertainment purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs
When I packed my life into a suitcase and took a one-way flight to Sydney, little did I know that the fearless leap would be the cornerstone of my journey and eventually lead to the birth of this podcast. Join us as we peel back the layers on why your 20s and 30s are the perfect time to take the risks that can shape your future. We share heartfelt stories and wisdom on the art of embracing uncertainty, diving into the power of bounded and unbounded risks, and the psychological intricacies that fuel our need to step out and take chances. This isn't just about changing jobs or starting a new business; it's about the profound growth that lies in the wake of risk-taking and the unparalleled joy of discovering what you're truly capable of when you challenge the status quo.
Throughout this episode, we're not just recounting tales of entrepreneurial grit; we're equipping you with the insights to navigate life's thrilling high wire. We draw from the daring spirits of individuals like Stephen Bartlett, who remind us that the most significant hazard in life is to play it safe and succumb to the dreaded "what ifs." You'll hear about the leaps of faith that mirror bungee jumping escapades, symbolising the adrenaline-fueled triumphs that come from calculated gambles. All this serves as a clarion call to live courageously, to view every stumble as a stepping stone, and to approach each day with the conviction that the path less traveled is not just for the young at heart, but for anyone willing to turn their dreams into reality.
For any enquiries or to connect with Oscar, Zeke, or their company, Asset Road, listeners can visit the following links:
The advice shared on The Finance Bible is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. The Finance Bible exists purely for educational / entertainment purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs
Zeke Guenthroth:
Welcome back to another episode of the Finance Bible Podcast, zeke here.
Oscar Don:
And your co-host, Oscar. But before we get into it, please note that nothing in this podcast should ever be considered as personal financial advice.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Of course, if that is what you are seeking, reach out. We'll get you in touch with the correct professionals. Get the job done properly. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Let's get into it.
Oscar Don:
Today we're going to talk about an interesting topic which is close to my heart, zeke. It might be close to your heart, but it's about taking risks in your 20s and your 30s and kind of the importance of doing it in those years before you decide to settle down and have a lot more responsibility like kids, a family, perhaps a mortgage or whatever it may be. But we just want to touch on why it's so important to if you're an ambitious type like ourselves, or a lot of people I know doing it in the younger years why it does pay dividends.
Zeke Guenthroth:
And even if you're not in your younger years, it could be taking like bounded versus unbounded risks, so, for example, ones that actually have a limit of the consequences versus ones that could ultimately ruin your life, like changing careers or something for the people who are in their 50s, 60s and so on.
Oscar Don:
Yeah, exactly right. I think one of the main reasons for taking risks is especially in your early days is the opportunity to grow and to learn. You know, when you do take risks let's just say, for example, you've always wanted to get into, give me an industry, a good job, or any job, any job, something people might want to get involved in.
Zeke Guenthroth:
I'm just going to go out there and say something close to home from a lot of friends doing it. I'm going to say mining.
Oscar Don:
Mining, fair enough. Well, look, let's just say you've been working a cafe for 10 plus years, or whatever how long it is and you've always wanted to go into the mining. But you're going to miss your friends, you're going to miss your family, because it's a bit of the FIFO, isn't it On? And off.
Zeke Guenthroth:
This one can be yep.
Oscar Don:
Yep, exactly right. But the thing is, if you don't take that risk, you'll never be exposed to the new experiences, because all that has to happen is you go, you give it a go and then it's a domino effect you meet someone who introduced you to someone else and all of a sudden you might get promoted in this role, and then different paths it's literally the butterfly effect. As well as many people have seen that movie, it takes me back when I moved to Sydney and that's where I met yourself, mate. And if I didn't actually take the risk to move to Sydney, this podcast would not have been a thing.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Which is funny because I had the exact same thing moved to Sydney and shortly after you jumped in and that's all about taking a risk like I never.
Oscar Don:
I've probably only visited Sydney once or twice before I actually moved. I had no idea. I just was sick of where I was living. So I'm like, get me out of here. Let's just give it a go and next minute. But it's all about exposing yourself to new experiences and challenges and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, because that's you. You know you talk about cold showers in the morning. You know you've got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's literally how you grow.
Zeke Guenthroth:
And you've got to also understand the actual fear behind it and what that means Like if you embrace a psychology of risk-taking, then you can obviously go into it and do it further. There's a good old saying actually I don't even know what it's a saying but every mistake is good. Obviously you learn something from it. There's no real thing as mistakes Like anything that goes wrong or not according to plan. You learn something from it. It's not a mistake, it's more of a misadventure to get to where you want to be. Oh, interesting, very interesting. So if you, if you do try and do something and you make a few mistakes along the way, you take the risk to do it, ultimately you're going to actually be learning what you're doing. And if you're going into a different career, you know it could be career development. But if you're just taking a risk, doing something like um, I don't know, going on a blind date, let's just say that, for example, good fun. Good fun, you reckon From yourself, from myself.
Oscar Don:
Your old blind dates you used to tell me about.
Zeke Guenthroth:
I've never done it.
Oscar Don:
That's what you have. I'm able to do something else. Oh, we should. Maybe it was Cody.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Mate, I might do it just for a bit of fun. Now, take a risk, get out of my comfort zone to be chaos. Imagine that. Imagine opening your eyes and seeing me. You'd instantly be. If I was, if I was the person at the end of the table, I'd probably be walking away. Oh, a happy man or a happy woman, um. But if you do something like that just, for example, the personal development that you'll gain from that experience and a bunch of different experiences too ends up being worth it in the long run. So a risk is always worth taking. No risk, no reward.
Oscar Don:
And I think, looking at our own journey, we touched on it in our business podcast the three-part podcast, talking about how, if you have a desire to start your own business and you're a bit nervous but you do it, the worst thing that can really happen is it doesn't work out and then you go back to your job, what you're doing now or what you were doing in the past, it's really not that bad of an outcome if it doesn't perform well. So taking a risk in that area is important because if it pays off, it pays off, and especially during your 20s and 30s, like these are the ages when you don't really have responsibility, like, yes, you may have to pay rent or look after yourself and do your shopping and stuff, but you don't necessarily have kids yet or a family or a mortgage or multiple mortgages and you don't really have to. You know, be the mature, responsible adult. You can kind of you know, try it out, see what happens, but if you're sitting on the fence about looking at doing it, it's yeah.
Zeke Guenthroth:
I just can't talk about enough how important it is to just take the risk and even if you are in that position where you might be a bit more at the later stages of life as a young person, then you've still got enough time, generally speaking, to recover from whatever does go wrong if it does go wrong. So if it did go wrong, you know you've got time to fix it, but if it doesn't go wrong, you'll be laughing.
Zeke Guenthroth:
That's true, and that brings me back to the point I was making about bounded versus unbounded risk-taking. You've got to risk it for the biscuit One of my favorite sayings from back in the day I love it.
Zeke Guenthroth:
It's from American Pie, it's a good one, but if it's a bounded risk, it has known limitations. So, for example, if you're starting a debt-free side hustle, so you're just throwing hours into it. The limitation on that the bound is okay. You're wasting hours if it doesn't go according to plan. But are you really Because you learn from it anyway? Whereas unbounded is something that could have a flow on effect or a drastic impact. Like, for example, it could be starting a side hustle but with a 500 grand loan, or it could be yeah, that's a whole different story.
Zeke Guenthroth:
You've got gonna pay the loan changing careers into something you've got no idea about. You've never done it, you know no one in it, you have no qualifications and the likelihood is very low that it would work out.
Oscar Don:
So that's the difference between abandoned and unbounded and I also think yes, we're talking about 20 and 30 year olds or in that area. But even if you're not 20 or 30, let's say you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s. At the same time, it's never too late to take a risk and try something completely different. You've seen so many successful entrepreneurs like change the whole industry when they're in their 50s or 60s and then they're you know it's an absolute success. They make billions and millions of successful company. But having a backing like don't throw all your eggs, it's like investing one-on-one Don't throw all your eggs in one basket. If you want to take the risk, just make sure you've got enough money set aside to cover everything you need in case it went bad and you lost all the money in the business, for example. Be sensible about it, because everyone says horror stories. You can just type in literal like entrepreneur horror stories or whatever, and there would just be endless amounts of just people.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Yeah, same with anything positive in the world. You go to do it, you do a bit of research. There's like reasons not to do this thing.
Oscar Don:
But it's literally never too late, you, you just got to be sensible about it. Another good one is the avoiding regret thing. It's a conversation, it's a little lingo people talk about, but avoiding regret. People tend to look back on life when they're older, like I was watching the other week on TikTok this video of someone filming these old like individuals in what do they call it nursing homes.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Yeah, if it was a nursing home. Yeah, it could be just normal retirement village. Were they getting looked after or what was going on.
Oscar Don:
I believe so. Maybe it was a retirement village or something like that. Anyway, they were quite old, probably in their 80s or 90s, and they were saying what is the one lesson you would tell your younger self? And probably around 85% to 90% of the individuals who got interviewed all said they should have taken the risk of what they love to do instead of working like the job that they did, just to make money. Which is quite interesting, because everyone goes along like.
Oscar Don:
You grow up wanting to be like a footy player or a police officer or an astronaut or whatever it may be, and then, most of the time, when you get older, you go into a completely other thing, but you still, deep down, want to do what your goals were. And then everyone just you just don't align with it because you're too nervous to take the risk. And now it's like well, I'm too old, now I should have done it, maybe another lie, but just do it. It's literally like, just do it. Yeah, well said, just figure it out and just do it. As we mentioned just before, what's the worst that's going to happen?
Zeke Guenthroth:
Yeah, and if you're going down that path, there's two very simple things you can do to mitigate risk as well, one of which I mean. They're both very important, but I love this one. It's actually like manage your impulsivity. So if you're really impulsive and you wake up tomorrow morning, you're like, oh yeah, I'm going to go and be a, I'm going to go build rockets, and then you try and go do that out of nowhere. Obviously it's probably not going to work, or you know, you might even go.
Zeke Guenthroth:
I'm going to go start a cafe and the next morning you wake up again and go. No, I'm going to create a toothpaste line. So you know, being impulsive, just manage it. The other one is actually a bit of thought-based research and thinking. So when you go, hey, I am going to take this risk, think about all right, well, what, what am I actually doing? What is the consequence? What is the outcome, what is the potential of this?
Zeke Guenthroth:
So if you're thinking, oh, yeah, I'm going to risk it and, um, let's go along the financial side, I'm going to invest in bitcoin, like, yeah, it's a bit of a risk, you know you could win, you could lose. It's not as bad as sports bet, because you can. Yeah, it's a bit of a risk, you know you could win, you could lose. It's not as bad a sports bet, because you can actually think about it a bit more. But with Bitcoin, you know you can sit there and analyse it. You can look at the chart and figure out where you should buy and where you shouldn't. Do a bit of research on how it works. So just put a bit of thought into it.
Oscar Don:
Don't be too impulsive. And then, yeah, it's really important for to jump into it. Yeah right, bloody love it. I was gonna say as well. Um, I was one of those people with all those ideas when I was growing up. I had a car washing company, which is actually a good company for a little bit. Um, I had a lawn mowing I think it was called don gardening didn Didn't get one client. Oh, that's sad, didn't do anything.
Oscar Don:
But you've just got to keep persisting over time, like I. Probably there's a few others I started I can't really think of them right now but I did little side hustles and then this one didn't work, this one didn't work, this one didn't work. But you just keep going and going and going. Then eventually one may stick.
Oscar Don:
But it's all about being resilient, building resilience, and that's what risk-taking teaches you. It teaches you how to cope with failure, setbacks and uncertainty. So if you develop the resilience early in your life, it can help you bounce back stronger from literally any challenge and also help you mentally with developing a positive mindset. So with a positive mindset obviously mindset's key you can use that for literally everything in life. For the rest of also help you mentally with developing a positive mindset. So you with a positive mindset obviously mindset's key you can use that for literally everything in life, for the rest of your life. And that's why it's important to kind of learn those skills when you don't have all that responsibility and you can, you know, learn and grow and also fail at the same time yeah, and I mean the the actual importance of taking risks.
Zeke Guenthroth:
It can do so many things for you. It can open your eyes to a whole new world. You can meet people you never would have met. You can end up creating businesses. You can end up getting promoted into different industries and different roles. But another, like just an example of a risk that, personally, you and I should probably take more to be honest, oh, tell me, and probably everyone at home too, we're about to find out. But actually like going to networking events and putting yourself out there and getting to meet people and stuff. Like, yeah, sure, it's all good and dandy to rock up somewhere and be like, oh, I'm at a networking event or whatever it is, but if you just go there and you don't actually like talk to people and meet people and expand yourself like what are you doing?
Zeke Guenthroth:
And that's one very little risk, like what could go wrong. You meet someone, you introduce yourself, you just don't like them and then they go yeah, okay, and that's it. Yeah, good chat. You're like, all right, there's a waste of 10 seconds, what a douche. But then you just move on and talk to the next person, the next one, and guess what? After five minutes you might talk to someone who ends up being a million dollar man for your company and boosting revenue and doing xyz.
Oscar Don:
Yeah, you meet someone who wants to invest and and with these networking events as well, not just networking like any event, that which you're wanting to look down in that industry you can actually, as you mentioned just then, the circle. I think the circle is an important thing. You want to surround yourself. You want to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who have taken risks, who can also be a mentor or guide you in you know their way and what they may recommend different steps but having people the same circle who can keep you accountable, keeping on track, if you have any questions, you ask them, I think that is like so important.
Oscar Don:
Like we've got we've got a quite a few different connections in our circle. Like we're we're pretty lucky how we can ask people if we need for advice or anything like that. And good old mr minor as well mr minor last year. So I think, surrounding yourself with the right people, um, right goals and on the same path, or even you want to be what they are right now, I think that's pretty important because, basically, just aspire to be them and they'll teach you how to get there.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Yeah, and like thinking back to childhood, right, because I know I am a bit of a risk taker now, like I love to run amok and just see what I can get away with, and that sounds horrible to say.
Oscar Don:
That sounds horrible.
Zeke Guenthroth:
So, if I can, get away with it, then in, um, you know, I'll go and actually do things that I probably um, I can't even say that I probably shouldn't, because that sounds bad too. I don't know how to how to explain what I'm trying to say.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Jump in, I actually can't even like I don't, I don't understand what you're trying to say well, I'm trying to say that I like to take risks and calculated risks yeah, and you know I'm probably more in the risk-taker side than the sit back and be conservative side, so your risk profile would be to the other end oh yeah, it'd be to the high end, high end of the spectrum. You know, everyone has children. Unless your parents were like really strict and were like, hey, don't walk on that balance beam, or you know you're not allowed outside.
Oscar Don:
Yeah, these kids are doing everything they're not to do.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Don't eat dirt because you might die or something like that. We're risk takers at heart, every one of us, you know you're just doing stupid things as children like just ridiculous things riding scooters with their helmets at skate parks and trying to do tailwhips and backflips. Well, it is ridiculous, really, trying to do tailwhips and backflips. Well, it is ridiculous really. Like how many people do you know now like adults that haven't ridden a scooter would just jump on a scooter with no helmet and go and try and do a?
Oscar Don:
backflip or something at the skate park. Oh yeah, no one, but as a kid I'd be like yeah hit me up, I'm doing it.
Zeke Guenthroth:
True, you're right, so like. But now, as adults, we'd be like oh, that's outlandish. Back then, as children, before we were told hey, don't do this, don't take risks, blah, blah, blah, we would have done it. It's our natural way of living and that's the way that we should be. So I love taking risks.
Oscar Don:
There you go, and I'd just like to take this time. One of my favourite entrepreneurs, and now an author, is Stephen Bartlett, as if anyone's following me on LinkedIn would have seen the other week posted just a bit of my key learnings from his book the Door of a CEO. But he's got an unbelievable quote about taking risks and I'll just quickly read it. So it says taking no risks will end up being your biggest risk. You have to risk failure to succeed. You have to risk failure to succeed. You have to risk rejection to be accepted.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Strong words yeah, well, if you, if you never take a risk, right?
Oscar Don:
as you think that literally is your biggest risk, then you've been being a status quo yeah, you probably never fail and if you never fail, then you never learn, then you never learn, and if you never learn, you're a bum.
Zeke Guenthroth:
A bum, yes, a bum. I haven't used that word for a long time. But yeah, if you never fail and you never learn and you're just constantly, you know, following the ordinary, you get stuck in it, stuck in it, stuck in it, and then finally, when you're like, oh, I could probably try this, I'd probably wave to someone in the street instead of walking past them. It's heaps scary. The longer you wait and the more scary it gets, the less likely you are to take the risk. It's like thinking back to bungee jumping.
Oscar Don:
Oh yeah.
Zeke Guenthroth:
When I was up there at the Nevis Bungee it's like 150 metres.
Oscar Don:
I know that bungee or 140 or whatever I pulled out of that one Did you. Were you standing up there for too long? No, I was looking. I was on ground, looking at what I want to do, that way it can preach down. And I saw that and I was like Dan, he's like, yeah, let's do it. I'm like, nah, fuck, no chance, that's unreal. So I respected you've done that. That is risk-taking taking.
Zeke Guenthroth:
That's a different type of risk taking, but I love it yeah, well, I just got up there and I went unreal, get me off, you're like what's the worst thing that can happen? Well, I know the rope might snap no, no, the rope won't snap, that's okay. It's called a thought-based risk. I've done the calculating. There's different weight harnesses.
Oscar Don:
They weigh you before you hop on you would have been up to, uh, the biggest harness then.
Zeke Guenthroth:
I wish Imagine that I think from our group I was actually the heaviest there, to be fair, but the other boys are all quite small in comparison to me, big boy. Oh yeah, jokes, if you fellas are listening, you know it's true, but no like, the longer you're up there, I watched other people do it, obviously, and the longer they kind of stood and thought about it and processed it, the more you could see them going. Oh, I'm not sure.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Whereas I was just like yeah, get me down there, let's go, and just did a big swan dive copped it, loved it, it was beautiful.
Oscar Don:
And you look back and you're like I'm glad I did that I love watching the video. Imagine if you walked down and you just decided you're not going to do it. You'd be regretful for your whole life until you do it again. That's what people are like when they're older, looking back in life.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Yeah, literally To this day. I would hate myself. And guess what? I'm going back again in three months and I'll be doing it again.
Oscar Don:
Oh, there you go.
Zeke Guenthroth:
So yeah, it's just unreal. But yeah, that's just a simple example of taking a risk and the benefit I got out of it was it was awesome.
Oscar Don:
Perfect.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Man, I love it.
Oscar Don:
Well, I think, unless you have anything else, I've touched on the majority of what I believe is important in your 20s and 30s. Do you have any one more thing to add before we wrap up?
Zeke Guenthroth:
Well, yeah, it hasn't really been an informative podcast, has it? It's more why we think risk is good.
Oscar Don:
What we've done, which is informative.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Yeah, that's true, everyone out there. Make sure you take a risk every day and get into it. Enjoy life and don't live life out of fear. Just keep taking the risk and uh, yeah, you'll be happy happy.
Oscar Don:
Happy is larry. We'll see you on the next episode.
Zeke Guenthroth:
Goodbye we hope you enjoyed the episode. As always, you know exactly what to do hit that follow button subscribe.
Oscar Don:
Whatever platform you listen to this podcast on, also share it to friends, families, co-workers, whoever you think may benefit from it. But unfortunately it's the end and we'll see you next week.