GoKawiilThis story appears in the July 2026 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
You have a decision to make. One option feels clear and familiar. The other seems riskier and harder to picture.
If you’re like most people, you’re tempted to choose the safe one. But before you do, consider this piece of advice, given recently to a teenager facing a huge life choice — because it might lead you toward a bigger life.
A young friend of my family, Lucia, was recently deciding which college to attend this fall. She narrowed it down to two options. The first is comfortable and familiar, in a city she knows well. The second is exciting but far from home, in an unfamiliar city, and unlike anything she’s known before.
Lucia told an adult she was leaning toward the first school. Here’s why: “I can picture myself at the first school, but I can’t really picture myself at the second one,” she said.
The adult replied, “If you can so easily see yourself there, maybe it’s not a big enough adventure.”
That line changed her thinking. She chose the second school. I think we should all tell ourselves the same thing.
We like to reduce risk. That’s natural. And it’s often how we make decisions: We choose the knowable option because it limits our downside.
But consider what else you might be limiting.
If you only choose the things you can already picture, then you are mostly living inside the edges of your existing experience. You revisit what you already know, or what sits one degree away from it. Your life expands slowly, or not at all.
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